Located at the foot of Tianshan Mountain, Balikun prairie in Hami offers picturestic scenery. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/Zhao Lixia]

Sitting at the eastern gate of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region towards central China, Hami has been a far away northwestern city that enjoys diversified natural resources, rich mineral reserves, beautiful ethnic women, and an enchanting mixture of Eastern and Western culture with strong exotic flavor. However, due to its distance from China's inner regions, Hami is still a mysterious place in many people's hearts.

Located at the eastern gate of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Hami is endowed with a spectacular natural landscape of the expansive prairies and Tianshan Mountain Ranges.

The first travel agency China International Travel Service established in Hami in 1988 was basically oriented to overseas tourists. Since 1995 when it set up its own tourism bureau, Hami has been making great efforts to develop its tourism industry.

Maimaiti is the deputy director of Hami tourism department. When talking about the tourism development of the past fourteen years, he seemed quite excited.

"Eight main types of landscapes are available to capture in Hami. You can find out natural scenic attractions, folk customs as well as historical sites in its vast land. Currently we are in the process of developing tourism with emphasis on Hami's multi-ethnic region character."

Maimaiti elaborated that the abundance of tourism resources gives Hami a unique competitive advantage over the tourism interests of other places. In order to attract more tourists from home and abroad, the deputy tourism minister further says that infrastructure construction is given first priority in Hami's tourism development during recent years. At the same time, Hami has taken active measures to encourage local enterprises to go nation-wide while introducing business from other provinces to Hami.