Abstract: Beginning with formation of the city-town system and the historic development process and conditions, the present features of city-town development are analyzed in the paper. From an angle of the regional sustainable development, a strategy of city-town development is put forward, that is "adopting a development model of point-axis system, forming four growing points, three developing axes and four city-town groups". At last this kind of spatial distribution of the city-town system will be formed, i. e. a point-belt-area city-town network. Thus, the regional development and the regional distribution of the city-town system will be promoted. The development model includes：
(1) The central cities of economic growth：By means of forecasting the size of the cities and towns, it is planned that Hami City is the central city in first level, Sandaoling in second level, and Barkol and Yiwu are in third level in the whole prefecture.
(2) The major development axes：the axis in first level includes the areas along National Highway No.312 and Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway. The convenient passageways opening to the outside world have been formed, and the large industrial enterprises, state farms and grazing lands are distributed in the axis.
(3) The city-town groups：they include a key group and the west, east and north groups.

Key words: city-town system, central city, spatial distribution, Hami Prefecture