China held a grand gathering on Thursday in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the autonomous region’s founding.
The regional gross domestic product (GDP) hit over 2 trillion yuan (around $281.4 billion) in 2024, 203 times that of 1955, reaching an average annual growth rate of 8 percent.
Transportation has been largely improved in the region. The mileage of railways totaled 9,234 kilometers in 2025. The highway network has also grown, from 8,820 km in 1955 to 231,900 km in 2024.
The total population of Xinjiang reached 25.85 million by 2020, up from 4.78 million in 1953. Particularly, the ethnic minority populations in the region increased from 4.45 million to 14.93 million from 1953 to 2020.
