The Tianshan Mountains is the biggest glacier zone of China,with as many as 6890 of them, and covering an area of over 9500 square kilometers. The No. 1 Glacier is located at the source of the Urumqi River at an eievation of above 3545 meters in an alpine glacier zone 118 kilometers from Urumqi.

At the source of the Urumqi River are distributed 150 small glaciers made up of cirque glaciers that cover an area of 46 square kilometers. The No. 1 Glacier is the biggest glacier at the Daxigou source zone of the Urumqi River which is composed of two, east and west, branches of glaciers running 23 kilometers an covering 184 square kilometers, and reaching an elevation of 4476 meters whereas the average snowline elevation is around 4050 meters. The annual average temperature at the glacial zone is -53 degrees Celsius, average coldest monthly temperature - 159 degrees Celsius,and
average annual precipitation 430 millimeters. In 1959, the Tianshan Glacier Research Station was set up to study the hydrology, accumulation, melting, and movement of the glacier and to make relevant meteorological observations. The Station has been opened to the world.