Xinjiang has experienced considerable urban growth in the past sixty years, especially since the implementation of socio-economic reforms in 1978. When Xinjiang was founded as a Uygur Autonomous Region in 1955, there were only three cities with an urban population of 870 thousand, while in 2008 it had 21 cities with a total urban population with 8.45 million. Such an urban growth is attributed to the boost in the number of cities and the urban population. Urban expansion enhanced geographic inequality between the two major regions in Xinjiang. Compared to the Northern part, Southern Xinjiang only has 33.3% of the total cities and 35% of the urban population. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and statistical analyses, this study aims at explaining the structure and spatial development of urban growth, and highlighting the current issues of urban inequality in Xinjiang during the past three decades. The conclusions are the following: 1. During the last three decades, extra large cities, medium cities and towns have a tendency to increase their importance in the proportion of the urban population, while the large and small cities begun to lose their importance in Xinjiang; 2. Urban growth disparities between North and South have become increasingly obvious, but seem to be evolving slowly after 2000; 3. According to our study, there are a variety of factors that we feel are important in explaining the urbanization pattern in Xinjiang. Some of them are geographical factors such as topography and water system; - ome are institutional factors such as urban policy, some are economic factors such as per capita GDP, some are social factors such as education level of population and migration.