Shuimogou Park: The Mill-River Valley, the Warm Springs of Old Urumqi and the Temple Bells of Qingquan Temple along the Gorge Walkway in Urumqi, Xinjiang
水磨声歇泉犹暖，古寺钟声落谷中。Shuǐmò shēng xiē quán yóu nuǎn, gǔsì zhōngshēng luò gǔ zhōng – The mill’s sound has ceased yet the springs run warm; the old temple’s bell falls into the valley.
水磨沟公园 Shuǐmògōu Gōngyuán Shuimogou Park lines the wooded gorge of the 水磨河 Shuǐmò Hé Shuimo River in 水磨沟区 Shuǐmògōu Qū Shuimogou District, on the eastern side of 乌鲁木齐市 Wǔlǔmùqí Shì Urumqi City – a valley park built around the memory of its own industry. The 水磨 shuǐmò water mills that gave the gorge its name once ground grain along this stream for the whole young city, and though the millwheels are now heritage rather than hardware, the valley keeps their story in its pavilions, bridges and streams. Two threads run through the gorge’s past: the mill trade, and the 温泉 wēnquán hot springs whose warm waters made the valley a retreat as far back as the Qing era, when officials came out from the town to take the waters among the poplars. The 清泉寺 Qīngquán Sì Qingquan Temple adds incense to the mix, its halls and bell carrying on the valley’s older register, and a walkway follows the stream the length of the park – willows, footbridges, springs steaming faintly in winter frost – all of it free to enter (worth confirming the details for which spring facilities operate today and any separate charges inside the valley). In a city of wide roads and big skies, this narrow green gorge with a warm stream in it is the local definition of an afternoon.
Two crowds fill the walkway: district residents – taiji groups, chess tables, grandparents with caged crickets – who use the valley as their front garden in every season, and city visitors who come for the thermal-water story and stay for the easy, shaded kilometre or two along the stream. The stock answer in kind: a free valley walk that needs no shuttle, steam rising off warm water on a cold morning, and temple bells instead of traffic for an hour or two.
Call it honestly: Shuimogou is a neighbourhood park grown up, not a destination wilderness – the built pavilions show their decades, the spring facilities are more history than spa, and anyone expecting a resort pool will find streams and steaming outfalls rather than bathing (worth confirming the details for any current bathing or foot-soak services, which change with the operators). What repays the visit: the winter scene, when warm spring water threads through frost and the valley steams like a kettle; the temple on its feast days; and the simple, increasingly rare pleasure of a public park that asks nothing and gives shade, water and birdsong. Come on a weekday morning for the locals’ valley, bring a thermos and take the full length of the stream walk rather than the gate-end loop.
Practicalities
Nearly everything else on this Urumqi list trades a different mood on the same city: choose 红山公园 Hóngshān Gōngyuán Hongshan Park for the stairway skyline, 新疆国际大巴扎 Xīnjiāng Guójì Dàbāzhā the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar for the bazaar energy, 天山大峡谷 Tiānshān Dàxiágǔ Tianshan Grand Canyon for the high-country day out and 新疆维吾尔自治区博物馆 Xīnjiāng Wéiwú’ěr Zìzhìqū Bówùguǎn the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum for the Silk Road relics – four more doors into the same 乌鲁木齐市 Wǔlǔmùqí Shì Urumqi City. Once the day is planned, our Urumqi food map fills the eating hours.
Practicalities
Words and Names
flowcloud would say that Shuimogou is the city unwinding – old mills, warm water and a temple bell where the traffic noise ought to be – and that the honest move is to walk the whole stream at an unhurried pace and let the valley’s two centuries of mills, springs and incense do the narrating. All checked November 2026.
Getting there: Buses east of the centre along 水磨沟路 Shuǐmògōu Lù Shuimogou Road reach the park gates in the 水磨沟区 Shuǐmògōu Qū Shuimogou District (worth confirming the details for the spring-side walks, which close on icy mornings); the valley stream runs the length of the park. All checked November 2026.