Bazaar

Urumqi is a great place to pick up some interesting craft items like ethnic clothing, embroidery, and jewelry. Other handicrafts include jade carvings, Kashgar carpets, exotic knives, wood crafts, and ethnic musical instruments.

It is fun to go on a bazaar tour in Urumqi, for it provides a good opportunity to mingle with the different ethnic groups and understand the life and customs of the local people. The Erdaoqiao market, the largest Uighur bazaar in Urumqi is located along Jiefang Nan Lu. When you see the peddlers in their little embroidered caps and the women in their colorful shawls, or hear the haunting ballads at street side restaurants, there is no mistaking where you are. Visitors can taste a variety of national foods, enjoy fresh fruits (the grapes and melons are exceptionally sweet), and buy the local Xinjiang handicrafts. This is a heavily populated Uighur area and many of the city's major mosques are in the Jiefang Nan Lu district.