Karamay was the first big oil field developed since the founding of the people's republic of China.Karamay” ,meaning “black oil” in the Uygur language, gets its name from the natural asphalt hill at the city’s northeast edge--the black oil hill. On December 29,1955,the first well drilled in this region began to produce oil, marking the discovery of the Karamay oil field. during may,1955, Karamay city was established under the approval of the state council. through brilliant pioneering of more than 30 years, Karamay has been built into a petroleum production base with fairly complete departments including: exploration, drilling, oil production, oil pipeline, refinery, construction, transportation, machine repairing and manufacturing, and a new petroleum city with a basically complete set of scientific research, culture and education, public health, commerce andtrade, as well as public facilities. Karamay is located at the northwest edge of Zhungarian basin, at east longitude 84.42’, and north latitude 45.36’, covering an area of 9,500 square kilometers.Karamay has 4 districts , 2 communes, and 1 town, the total population in 1990 was 260000 among which the han nationality covers 76.24%, the remaining 23.7% consists of more than 30 minorities including uygur, kazak, hui, mogolian, man,xibo, russian and so on. the dominating industry in Karamay is the petroleum industry which is also the economic mainstay in Xinjiang. The head office of the xinjiang petroleum administration bureau (xpa) is in Karamay. theindustrial output value in 1990 was 1,878 billion yuan.by the end of 1990, Karamay had produced nearly 100 of kinds oil products, 19 of which have entered the international market. two of these oil products won china national gold medals and 8 won silver medals.50 kinds were named as high grade products at the ministry and provincial level. transportation in Karamay is very convenient.three main highways pass through the city’s region,and the highway network within Karamay reaches everywhere. there are fixed bus lines to urumqi and the main cities in north ern xinjiang. there are direct flights to urumqi on tuesday, thursday and saturday. along with oil field development and construction, 5 natural towns with oil field features are formed along the aletai-dushanzi highway to the north of Karamay: jinglong, sanping,baijiantan,baikouquan and wurhe. there are also the "double five" towns of gongqing and the dushanzi district in the south, formulating the greater area,Karamay ,a city with many smaller towns surrounding it. the city has 14 scientific research organs and 25,000 technical personnel. by the end of 1990, Karamay gained more than 100 achievements in scientific research above the ministry and provincial level, more than 30 of them won china national prizes. the main touring places in Karamay are the black oil hill, the windy city (ghost city) and the no.1 well. Karamay has undertaken a wide range of foreign corporations since china’s reform and opening to the outside world technicians frommore than 100 foreign companies like cgg, rolls royce, general electric, mits ubishi heavy lndustries, schlumberger,etc. have been to Karamay for technical services. meanwhile, more than 40 foreign big petroleum companies like exxon, shell, bp, mobil and so on have sent geological field inspection delegations to visit Karamay. by the end of 1990, more than 3,500 foreign experts have been to Karamay for inspections, visiting, economic and technical exchanges as well as technical services. Karamay has more than 3,000 people who are relatives of overseas Chinese in more than 20 countries or regions as well as having compatriots in hongkong, macao and taiwan. by the end of 1990, more than 1,500 overseas chinese and compatriots came to Karamay to visit relatives and sightsee. as a petroleum city, Karamay will first guarantee the state plan and then try to move on to diversifications, with the consideration of the market needs and taking use of its own advantages. in coming years, key projects will include highly developing natural gas and furthering the processing of petroleum by- products.enhancing the three industries petroleum machinery, electrical industry, and construction material industry as well as agriculture and sideline productions,engage in joint operations in three types of products (lubricates ,petrocoal,chemical products )and build up three industries (petrochemical works, light textile industry and fodder industry ). through various types of joint operations and corporations, Karamay will be built into a diverse city majoring in petroleum industry, with multi-industry structure and multi functions.

Karamay is typical continental. it is dry hot and little rain here in summer. the difference of temperature varies greatly in summer and winter,the annual average temperature is 8.4 degree above zero with the highest being 40 degrees and the
lowest being minus 28 degrees. the annual rainfall is 170 mm.