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Karamay is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The name of the city comes from the Uyghur language, and means "black oil", referring to the oil fields near the city. Karamay is situated in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at the edge of the Junggar Basin. The Tianshan Mountains zigzag south of the city, and the road mileage between Karamay and Urumqi is 313 kilometers. Karamay is Uygur word meaning 'black oil'. It gained this name for the Black Oil Mountain near the city proper. After the first oil well of the mountain began to work in 1955, the city entered a great era of exploitation and construction. The terrain of Karamay is long and narrow, higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast. Generally speaking, its western and northern territories are occupied by mountains, while its central and eastern parts are vast open flat spaces.