A novel psychrophilic, Gram-positive, yellow-pigmented and aerobic bacterium, strain 0543(T), was isolated from the China No. 1 glacier. Strain 0543(T) was able to grow at 4-23 degrees C, with optimum growth at 18-19 degrees C. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C(15 : 0) (58.36 %), iso-C(16 : 0) (21.13 %), iso-C(14 : 0) (10.25 %) and anteiso-C(17 : 0) (7.16 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was 63.5 mol% and the major menaquinone was MK-10. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain 0543(T) represented a lineage within the family Microbacteriaceae, with the highest similarity of 97.4 % with Salinibacterium amurskyense KMM 3673(T). On the basis of polyphasic, chemotaxonomic, physiological and biochemical evidence from this study, the novel species Salinibacterium xinjiangense sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is 0543(T)(=CGMCC 1.5381(T) =JCM 13926(T)).