Shymkent (also Chimkent) - the regional centre of the South Kazakhstan area with the population over 650 thousand people, simultaneously being one of the basic industrial, trading and cultural centers of the country. Many disputes round the city name are conducted: one group of etimologues asserts that "Shymkent" in transfer from the Turkic means "Shym" / "Chim" — turf and Iranian «kent» (kend, kand) — a city, settlement, others consider that the name originates from sogdiyskiy (Iranian) "chimin-chemen", that is a meadow, a blossoming valley or within a combination with «kent» — a green (blossoming) city.

In the written sources which have remained to our time, for the first time Chimkent was mentioned by the Persian historian Sharaf ad-din Ali Jaezdi in the book «Zafar Name» («the Book of Victories»). Thanks to the rich and sated history of Chimkent, a cultural heritage and sights of a city involve tourists from every corner of the globe.

In Chimkent also operates 19 cultural national centres: kazakh, slavic, uzbek, tataro-bashkir, german, jewish, korean, kurdish and others, 28 libraries, 8 parks and the squares, three of them have been based still in the middle of XIX and in the beginning of XX-th century.

Unique exhibits of an epoch of the Kanguy State can be seen in regional museum of local lore. Such objects of culture and rest, as park of Abaja, an aquapark, ethnographic park "Ken-Baba", the entertaining centers «NIMEX LAND» and "Bamzik" and also the childrens railway, extent about 6 km, connecting northern part of a city with dendropark, a zoo and a hippodrome uses a great popularity at tourists and local population.