China is upping its efforts to tear down mud-and-brick makeshift houses and replace them with modern concrete apartments in slum areas of the northwestern city Urumqi.

The sprawling slum areas are home to 250,000 people, mostly ethnic Uygurs, in the capital city of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and are considered the breeding ground for the resentment which underpinned the deadly riots that rocked the city two years ago.

About 15,000 households in 50 slum areas will be covered by the government-funded project this year, officials say.

Urumqi has a population of around 3 million, with a significant presence of ethnic minorities, according to the latest census.

All of the city's 234 slum areas will be demolished and rebuilt by 2012 and the government will spend another two years to improve community facilities, says Xie Min, deputy director of Urumqi's construction committee.

Xie says the overhaul is getting into full swing as the weather warms up.

The government has spent 3.6 billion yuan (554 million U.S. dollars) in overhauling 19 slum clusters to resettle 6,259 households over the past year.

Yashan slum, once known as a "thug town" by local residents, is one of the many slum areas torn down by the government. Rows of six-floor concrete apartment buildings have replaced shacks and hovels. A clinic, kindergarten, and activity center have also been built in the area.

Visitors to Yashan Park have increased as they feel it is safer now that the nearby slum has been cleaned up.