Karamay's GDP hit 72.2 billion yuan last year, with its annual per capita income reaching 39,000 yuan, exceeding the national average of 26,000 yuan.

Its modern high-rise buildings and sleek highways are a dramatic departure from the early years. There are amenities such as 40 city parks, a golf course, a library, a science and technology center, a gymnasium and an Olympic-sized public swimming pool.

Karamay has been diversifying the city's economy away from sole reliance on exploiting oil and gas resources in the Junggar Basin.

"Rather than awaiting another fall in oil prices, we're much better off taking advantage of our oil and gas production to initiate industrial restructuring," Wang Gang, mayor of Karamay, said.

In a resource-based city undergoing transformation, livelihoods should be the priority, he said. Special attention has been paid to developing three new industries: finance, information and tourism.

The measures introduced have extended the industrial chain to downstream sectors, improving the city's economic structure and enhancing its capacity to cope with risks.

Livelihood projects such as tree planting, the building of senior day care centers, community healthcare, and food safety cooperatives have created a livable environment.

Tourism has become Karamay's most vibrant industry, said Shi Jian, deputy director of the city's tourism bureau.

Visitors made 6.2 million trips to the city in the first nine months of this year, up 48 percent year-on-year, he said, while tourism income rose 46 percent year-on-year to 9.2 billion yuan.

"Developing the tourism market is an appropriate path for Karamay's transformation from a single-product economy to a diversified economy," he said.

Wang said the next step in Karamay's development is to become a vibrant, varied place to live, attracting new blood and offering a much broader range of social, economic and cultural resources.

Achieving that in a remote city like Karamay won't be easy.

But the city authorities are confident that continued reliance on the resilience of its people will make the impossible possible once again.