Dushanzi

Dushanzi (独山子区 / Maytag) is a district of Karamay, in northern Xinjiang, known as one of the birthplaces of China’s petroleum industry. The name means “lone mountain,” referring to a small isolated peak nearby. Oil seepages were noted here as early as the Qing dynasty, but large-scale exploration began in the 1930s, when Soviet technicians helped establish one of Xinjiang’s first refineries. After the founding of the PRC, Dushanzi became a key site for national oil development, later integrated into the Karamay oilfield system in the 1950s. Today, it remains a major petrochemical hub, home to the Dushanzi Petrochemical Complex, one of China’s largest inland refineries.