Here is a post blog private email about my trip to China. I purposely left out anything about politics or government so as not to get my tour guide in trouble with authorities but there is more stuff I needed to talk about from my trip.

There is an underlying tension between the ethnic chinese and ethnic uyghars living in Xinjiang. The government has been paying ethnic chinese to take vacations and to resettle in xinjiang province. This is changing the demographic balance, making uyghars an ethnic minority in their own province. This boiled over into full scale riots in 2009 with many killed. Since then the army has moved in.

This is the same policy adopted by the soviet union, planting ethnic russians in the outer provinces to make them loyal to russia. Its also what Israel is doing, paying outsiders to come and resettle, taking away traditional lands and demolishing homes with no say, and bringing the army to protect the settlers.

On one level the government policy is understandable. You have a country of one billion people, overcrowded high rise cities in the east, a vast desert province in the west. It makes sense to move people from the crowded east into the open areas of the west. But there should be more local consultation than an imposed policy.

China has 57 recognized ethnic minorities with their own languages and alphabets. They are also trying to standardize by making chinese the official language. This helps their booming economy in trade and for people to visit, move, and work in other cities.

Unfortunately this means uyghars have to learn and speak chinese to get government jobs in xinjiang. The newly arrived chinese settlers can walk into jobs no problem since they know fluent chinese. This makes uyghars unhappy they cant get jobs in their own hometowns.

In schools students have to study in chinese now leading to a lost generation. If uyghars own their own business they have to hire ethnic chinese, but not vice versa.

Communism means one equal society. This is not true in China. There is one equality for the ethnic chinese, and one for the minorities. Ethnic chinese have easier times getting passports, bank loans, and being able to travel within the country or overseas. Uyghars have to wait 2 years for a passport after paying a large security deposit, and have internal and external travel restrictions.

To make the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia there is a quota and only older people are allowed.
If you have a government job you are not allowed to practice your religion. You cant fast or wear a headscarf. You are not allowed to pray or wear ethnic clothes.

Xinjiang is called the Uyghar Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. However, they have autonomy in name only. Decisions are made by central government and uyghars only hold junior positions in local government. They have no say in urban development and planned chinese supercities.

The historic town of kashgar is to become the 'new shenzen' due to the oil boom in the region. Much of old town was being destroyed. Much of urumqi is urban sprawl of new apartment buildings for ethnic chinese.

People have mixed feelings about chinese rule. Xinjiang has been part of china for about 2000 years. Some people are happy to stay but just want their autonomy returned. Others want outright independence. The local name for xinjiang (which in chinese is new frontier/land), is East Turkestan, implying ties to a 'West Turkestan' in central asia. However, the name Turkestan is forbidden and will get you arrested.

Toronto has a Silk Road Uyghar restaurant I went to in Etobicoke. She got upset when I asked if she was from Xinjiang and said they were from Turkestan. In the many chinatowns you see around the world you wont see ethnic uyghars or their food as its very difficult for them to travel, and easier for ethnic chinese although they still have difficulties.

There is a heavy army presence in all the towns. Peoples Square in Kashgar was cleared of people and only had army trucks and soldiers. For the Turpan Festival they cleared the whole downtown area and had army with massive rifles and dogs.

No photos of soldiers are allowed. If you are caught taking photos or they see a flash from your direction they will take your camera and go thru every pic deleting anything they dont like. I managed to sneak some in luckily but they are set to private settings and not on the web. There are sirens and continual patrols on the streets, roads, and public areas.

Since the riots in 2009 there has been an ethnic revival. People are more interested in their religion and culture and wear more traditional clothes. In contrast the ethnic muslim Hui of Shaanxi region have less problems being ethnic chinese. They are free to practice their religion, pray, fast, wear religious clothes.

Ethnic Hui are seen as less of a threat as they are landlocked in central china so do not have neighbours they could aspire to join. They may not be happy at how the uyghars are being treated but cant speak up or they could also face problems.

Uyghars are allowed to have two children in the cities or three children in the country. In the past there was no restriction during the china one child policy and they had large families.

All the staff at Xinjiang airports were ethnic chinese even though the locals travelling were uyghars. All announcements are made in chinese. Airport security in xinjiang was strict with electronic sniffers for hand luggage. I also noticed ethnic chinese would just go ahead of me in queues thinking I was a local uyghar.

People are saying this will be the next tibet and in lockdown soon. There is an atmosphere that you feel, moreso in Kashgar the heart of the Xinjiang. This is another reason why all flights are controlled and you must first fly to urumqi then beijing instead of direct flights.

Chinese rule has not all been bad. The economic boom has spread to Xinjiang, people have ok standards of living, some disposeable income, and consumer goods are available. But I didnt really see the two people mixing much and there always seperate neighbourhoods in towns.

Overall Xinjiang is still a very nice region and safe to travel. The people are very friendly and its a great place to visit. People should just be aware there things going on under the surface. If you keep your mouth shut and dont provoke the authorities you should have no problems. I couldnt live there though because of the politics.