It was hard to find a proper and cheapest offer of "How to get" to the place where, chinese believe, God lived before... Here's a brief info.... In Urumqi there is a Sheraton Hotel (Youhao Bei Lu - You Hao North Road, near International Exhibition Center, Hong Mountain and Museum). In front of the hotel you can catch a mini bus to Tian Chi... only for 30 kuai (yuan) there and back. You will see many buses beside a huge department store. Ask for the bus, which goes to Tian Chi. These buses are normally for chinese tourists, but you don't need to be in a group, just ask for a ride... you also don't need to join a 10 mins "trip" to Chinese traditional medicine shops on the way to Tian Chi and on the way back there should be a short visit to another special shopping center... In China, it's normally guide's responsibility to push everyone to buy smth... don't buy anything, unless you really trust that it's not a fake... Take a trip on weekend. Get there early in the morning, at about 9am, sign up for the trip... bus leaves at about 10:30am. and brings you back at about 7pm. Trip is quite short, but for this money it worth joining tourists group going to Tian Chi. Entrance fee to Tian Chi is 90 yuan. Food is pretty expensive, would not say it differs from those in Urumqi or overall Xinjiang. But Nang (round-shape bread) is yummy - melting in your mouth, so soft and tender... one "nang" costs 5 yuan. You don't need to stay in Tian Chi over the night, unless you want to take it longer and see more from the top of the mountain... Uzbek/Kazakhs may take you up to the mountain. They will give you a ride, and later you may ride a horse by yourself. Costly, but amazing. You can always bargain about price... ask for the half if not 75% discount ;)) If you want to spend a night in Tian chi, get ready to pay more, as the group you came with won't wait for you, so you need to arrange another bus for yourself to get back to Urumqi. There are quite a lot mini buses and they are not 100% full. At the end of the tour, you'll be brought to the same place where you were picked up. You may finish your tour by going to the Korean sauna, which is 10 mins away from the Sheraton hotel... very cool place, clean and well organised (for 38 yuan/24 hours + 3 times meal), don't mind if it's too noisy and busy. Have a nice trip to Tian Chi!