Urho Demon Town

4 min read

Urho Demon Town is also known as the Urho Windy Town, which is located in the Urho Mining Area at the downstream of Jiamu River, northwestern edge of Junggar Basin, within the territory of Urho District northeast of Karamay City, and 100km southwest from Karamay City. It can be reached conveniently by highways. The wind-erosion landform here is unique in oddly shapes, so it is called the”Sulumuhake”by the local Mongols, and “Shayitankerxi” by Kazakhs, both of the two names having the same meaning of Demon Town, and it is typical Yardang landform.

The Demon Town is located at a wind gap, which is rich in wind throughout the four seasons. Whenever there is a gale, the yellow sand will cover the sun, and the gale roars in the city, making various strange sounds like the shrill of ghosts and monsters, which is quite creepy, and hence it gains the name of “Demon Town”.

The Demon Town is in the trend of northwest -east-west about 5km long and about 3 km wide with an area of about 15km2, and formed by a series of isolate platforms in the trend of nearly north-west and south-east. The platform is 10-50 m high, formed by the Tugulu Group of the cretaceous system with extensive leakage, and the main lithological characters are shallow lacustrine gray-green fine sandstone, brown and maroon mudstone, and sandy mudstone. Tugulu Group is generally horizontal, and it slightly leans to the southeast with an inclination of about 5 degrees.

The Demon Town has a ground elevation of about 350m. According to the survey, in the cretaceous period about one hundred million years ago, this region was a huge freshwater lake, surrounded by lush vegetation, and in the lake, there are Urho stegosaurus, plesiosaur, dinosaurs, and Junggar pterosaur, and other ancient animals. It was a “paradise” for aquatic lake creatures. Later, after two major crustal movements, the lake became a ground desert, which is geologically called “Gobi platform”.

Urho Windy Town can be viewed from a distance, but cannot be toured in. Viewing from distance, you will admire its spectaculari, majesty, and the uncanny workmanship of nature; but when you enter into the city, you will feel extremely horrible. It is surrounded by numerous grotesque mounds, and the higher ones can be as high as the fourth floor; the side walls of the mounds are steep, and the principle of sedimentation can be clearly seen from the wall sections; the ground is barren full of dry loess, and there is deathly stillness all around. If one comes alone, he may pinch his face violently, or he would not believe what he just saw. Even at the night without a gale, one would tremble for scariness.

The hills have been blown into a variety of”buildings, some like the Pagoda of Six Harmonies beside the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, some like the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, some like the pyramids in Egypt, some like the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and some like the eagles spreading their wings. Because of the unique scenery, it has been taken as the film-shooting site for many films, such as the Oscar winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. More and more tourists come to Xinjiang for tourism and advantures.

Because of its location in the wind gap, the gale blows all the year round in the Demon Town, and the maximum wind can be up to 10-12 level. The powerful northwest wind makes both the “name” and the “appearance” of the Demon Town, making it grotesque. Looked afar, it is like a huge castle of the medieval Europe. Castles in different sizes are well arranged in great numbers. For millions of years, the ravines in different depths have been formed owing to the denudation of rain and wind. The bare rocks have been eroded into grotesque shapes: some like monsters showing their horrible tusks some like old castles with towering platforms and clear battlements; here looks like pavilions and agodas w eaves; and there looks like grand palaces, standing arrogantly…The s will make thoughts or recollections flash across one’s mind. On the undulate hilly lands, there are full of blood red, azure blue, pure white, and orange yellow pebbles, just like pearls scattered by fairy maiden. The Windy Town is located at the wind gap, and when the wind blows, sand and stones will fly all around, covering the sky and making stra ge shadows on ground. The airflows shuttle among the bizarre rocks and hills, making shrills like the howl of wolves, the roar of tigers, and the cry of ghosts; it will be more horrible at night with the faint light of moon shining on this bleak region.

There is an amazing legend about the Demon Town: it was originally a majestic castle. men in the castle were handsome and strong, and women were beautiful and kind, and all of them worked diligently, living a carefree life. However, with the accumulation of wealth the evil gradually occupied people’s’ hearts. They started to indulge in libertinism and debauchery. The entire castle(town)was full of intrigues and bloody fights in order to compete for wealth, and everyone’s face became ferocious. In order to arouse the conscience of the people, the God turned into a ragged beggar. He went into the castle and told people that it was evil that made him a beggar from a rich man; however, the God did not succeed, but abused and taunted by people The God turned the castle into a ruin in a rage, and all the people were buried under the castle. So at every night, the ghosts will whine in the castle, hoping that the God could hear the sound of their repentance.