A sedimentological study was conducted on an interbedded fine gravel and silt succession, up to 70 m thick, at Cangfang-Gou in northern Chaiwopu Basin, Tian Shan, NW China. The succession, informally termed Urumqi Gravel, is part of the gravelly basin infill that commenced around 1.87 Ma BP in the early Pleistocene. Its upper boundary, determined by a magnetostratigraphical study, is slightly above the Brunhes/Matuyama (B/M) at 780 ka BP. Detailed facies analysis indicates that the river underwent multiple cyclic changes from a bed-load dominated, braided to a suspension-load dominated, sinuous regime. The latter probably adopted a single-thread meandering pattern, confined within its course, and was predominated by overbank accretion of fines without development of distinct point bars. The river probably represents the proto-Urumqi River. It appears that the cyclic sequences are climatically controlled. Their preservation in the succession is largely attributed to the continued aggradation resulted from the subsidence of the Chaiwopu Basin in the early Pleistocene.