Driving to World Devil City: The Karamay to Urho Ghost City Self-Drive Route
Introduction
World Devil City, near the town of Urho between Karamay and the northern deserts, is one of Xinjiang’s strangest drives. A Yadan landform of wind-eroded rock towers rises from the plain, and the road takes you right to its edge. The name comes from the eerie whistle the wind makes through the formations. This guide covers the self-drive route from Karamay and how to make the most of it.
The appeal is otherworldly. Unlike lush lake or mountain drives, this one is about stark geology and silence broken only by wind. The towers glow red and gold at sunset, and the empty approach road builds the sense of arriving somewhere that should not exist. It is a short trip with a long memory.
Better still, the route is easy. Paved all the way, signed from Karamay, and close enough for a half-day outing, it suits any car and any driver. You get a dramatic landscape without the planning a remote expedition demands, which makes it a perfect add-on to a northern Xinjiang itinerary.
The route’s brevity is part of its charm. You can leave Karamay after a late breakfast, explore the formations at leisure, and be back for dinner, yet feel as if you traveled somewhere genuinely remote. That makes it perfect for a rest day between longer drives, or for travelers whose schedule allows only a taste of Xinjiang’s strange geography.
It also pairs naturally with the region’s oil-country character. The road passes rigs and pumping stations before reaching the silent towers, a juxtaposition that frames the Yadan as both natural wonder and neighbor to industry. Stopping in Urho for a meal bridges the two worlds and adds a human, working-town dimension to an otherwise eerie landscape.
Getting There
From Karamay, drive west on the highway toward Urho; the turnoff to the scenic area is well marked in Chinese, and your offline map will show the access road clearly. The total distance is roughly 100 kilometers, about 90 minutes with stops, making it an easy morning or afternoon run from the city.
Rent a car in Karamay or Urumqi and return it the same day if you wish; no special vehicle is needed for the paved approach. Fuel and supplies are available in Karamay before you leave, and the town of Urho has basic services if you need a top-up on the way back.
Enter the scenic area by car where permitted, or park at the gate and take the internal shuttle, depending on the current rules. The internal road loops past the main formations, so even the shuttle gives a good drive-through experience if private cars are restricted on certain sections.
Best Time to Visit
Late afternoon to sunset is the magic window, when the low sun sets the rock towers alight and the shadows lengthen across the plain. Summer evenings are long and warm, ideal for a late start from Karamay. Spring and autumn are pleasant and less crowded, while winter is cold but dramatically clear.
Avoid the midday flat light if photography matters; the formations look washed out under harsh noon sun. If you must arrive early, use the time to walk the marked paths and save the drive-out for the golden hour, when the wind often picks up and the place earns its devilish name.
What to See and Do
The formations are named, the Castle, the Spaceship, the Panther, and more, each a weathered tower the wind has sculpted over millennia. Drive the loop slowly and use the pullouts; the same rock reads completely differently from each angle, and the named viewpoints are placed for the best framing.
Listen as much as you look. On windy afternoons the towers hum and whistle, a sound that carries across the plain and explains the local legend of demons. It is an audio experience unique to this place, best appreciated by stepping away from the car and the crowds at a quiet bend.
Combine the drive with the surrounding desert plain, where the road continues toward open scrubland and distant rigs. The contrast between the surreal towers and the ordinary oil-country road is itself striking, a reminder that Xinjiang stacks the strange next to the mundane without transition.
Bring a wide lens and a drone only where allowed; the scale is hard to capture from ground level. The internal road gives elevated sections where you can see the field of towers spread to the horizon, the single best overview on the route and the image most visitors remember.
Travel Tips
Wind and sun are the two constants. Bring a windbreaker, a hat, and sunglasses, because the plain offers no shade and the gusts can be sharp. Secure loose items when you open the car door, as a sudden gust will snatch a map or hat across the sand.
Buy tickets at the gate and confirm whether your car may enter. Rules shift by season and by crowd level, so ask clearly and plan a shuttle backup. Either way, budget two to three hours inside to drive the loop and walk the key viewpoints without rushing the light.
Carry water and a charged phone. The area is exposed and the walk between formations is longer than it looks across the flat ground. Signal is decent near the gate but fades in the formations, so download your map and any translation help before you leave Karamay.
Drive carefully on the access road at dusk. Wildlife and the occasional wandering livestock appear near Urho, and the flat light makes distance hard to judge. Use headlights early, watch the verges, and resist the urge to stop on the lane for a photo when a pullout is steps away.
Nearby Attractions
Karamay itself, a city built on oil, has a neat center and museums on the region’s energy history worth an hour. Use it as your restock and meal base, with hotels and restaurants far better than the remote towns further out on the northern plains.
The route north toward the Irtysh and the colorful beaches near Burqin can extend the day if you are heading that way to Kanas. World Devil City works as a first taste of northern Xinjiang’s strange geology before the greener, wetter drives of the Altai further north.
Conclusion
Driving from Karamay to World Devil City is the easiest way to meet one of Xinjiang’s most surreal landscapes. The road is short, the car is all you need, and the payoff is a field of wind-carved towers that look like a ruined city abandoned by giants. Few trips deliver this much strangeness for so little effort.
Time your run for the golden hour, roll the windows down to hear the wind, and let the loop show you every angle of the stone. By the time you drive back toward Karamay under a darkening sky, you will understand exactly why they call it the Devil’s city, and why the name fits perfectly.
Go on a weekday if you can, because the formations feel far more otherworldly without tour groups filling the pullouts. A quiet Tuesday afternoon with the wind rising is the closest most visitors get to the lonely, mythical place the name suggests, and the photos benefit as much as the mood.
Bring more than a camera. A thermos, a windbreaker, and the patience to simply sit by a tower for twenty minutes turn a drive-through into an experience. The Devil City reveals its character slowly, and the traveler who rushes the loop misses the very silence that gives the place its name.
Use the route as a gateway to the north. Once you have seen the Yadan, the greener, wetter drives toward the Altai and Kanas feel like a different country, and the contrast is part of northern Xinjiang’s appeal. World Devil City is the strange, stark overture to a much lusher symphony just a few hours north.
Do not let the short distance fool you into rushing it. World Devil City earns a slow afternoon more than most all-day destinations, because its character only appears once the tour buses leave and the wind takes over. Build the drive around the late light, bring something warm, and resist the urge to tick the loop and go. The Yadan is one of the few places in Xinjiang where doing less, and lingering longer, visibly improves the experience you take home from it. It is the rare attraction that asks you to do less and rewards you for it, and that alone makes the short drive from Karamay worth every minute you spend out there.
