During my first trip to China in 2010 I was surprised to see halal muslim restaurants all over Beijing and Shanghai with Arabic writing. These were indigenous chinese people, not arab migrants. This was even more pronounced in Xian which had a large muslim quarter, street bazaar playing turkic music, and chinese style pagoda mosque. I had no idea there were this many muslims in China.
In Shanghai I had some freetime so was able to leave the tour and found a Xinjiang (shin-jhung) province restaurant near the hotel with ethnic Uyghar (wee-ghar) halal chinese food. This was a mix of indian curry with chinese noodles blended in, served with persian naan bread. They were playing arabic style ethnic music and had pictures of Taj Mahal style mosques in their home province.
Upon further study I learnt that China is home to about 30 million ethnic muslims, either ethnic Uyghars from the Xinjiang province in the west, or ethnic Hui from the Ningxia province in north central China Xinjiang Route Map. Wikipedia : Islam in China : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_C hina There are other minority ethnic muslims (kazakhs, tajiks, tatars), but the main two groups mostly centred in their home provinces towards the north and west of china, have migrated, settled, and made their presence felt in bustling centres like Shanghai and Beijing.
This relationship started in the 7th century with the ancient silk road trading routes from China, thru Persia and central asia, into the middle east and turkey. Xinjiang province in western china is where India, Persia, Central Asia, Turkey, the Middle East, and China all merged together into a diverse hybrid china muslim culture. Arab traders also came by sea to the south eastern coast where communities were established. There is a famous chinese muslim explorer Zheng He that sailed all across south east asia, the middle east, and africa, founding colonies and trading posts, and may have even made it as far as America, before China shut its borders and retreated into isoloationism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He The name 'Xinjiang' means new frontier, which it was to the ethnic chinese as they moved further inlands west, similar to when american settlers crossed the rockies and reached california Xinjiang Restaurant Shanghai. However, to the local population, it was not a new frontier, but an established culture with historical, cultural, and ethnic ties to many people in central asia. Their culture and traditions resemble more that of greater persia than of the ethnic chinese. I was fascinated by this part of China and wanted to see for myself. I loved the food I tried in the Xian muslim street market and Uyghar restaurant in Shanghai. Their music is very turkic/arabic and I wanted to hear more. The architecture is also quite unique, either pure chinese pagoda style, or extravagant Taj Mahal.
Here is some folk pop music very Persian sounding by a group Shahrizoda - can you believe this is China!! Almihan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1xQejte poI (Uyghar folk song covered in mandarin) Yorigulla : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlURJzyG pqM (an old folk song) Gizul Gul : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T0aopMz a78&feature=related Oynasun : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lXF9KVA Kko (their big hit, another cover of a popular folk song) Even chinese currency I noticed, has four languages, one of them arabic script which is used in Xinjiang province Xinjiang Restaurant Shanghai Menu. While Turkey abandoned arabic for a romanized european alphabet, and central asia under the soviet union adopted the russian cyrillic script, Xinjiang is the only turkic people to have kept the original arabic script for writing, even though the entire region across central asia to turkey speaks almost the same language. I'd looked at doing a trip from back home but roundtrip airfare was over $4000 plus more than $2000 for the tour for a minimum of $6000+ plus other costs!!! Coming to Korea one of my plans was to try to do this trip in the summer, and the Silk Road heartland in Uzbekistan the following summer. I can get flights from Daegu airport to Xinjiang province for $1400 and I managed to find someone who can offer me the 7 day tour for $1050, so round trip $2500 which is more reasonable than $6000 - $8000.
I even looked at teaching jobs in Xinjiang but jobs were only offered in Urumqi, had low pay of about $900, and the winter climate seemed quite severe with weather below freezing from September to May. Korea is close enough, warmer, and pays better for my to finance a trip from more closer.
I will be starting in Urumqi which is the capital of the province and a large city of about 3 million. From there we drive south 2.5hours to Turpan which is more in the cultural/historical heartland and has an abundance of historical and archeological sites, both from the silk road, and previous buddhist religious sites.
Then we travel to Kashgar on the western most tip of China Xinjiang Restaurant Shanghai Meal. The tour offered a 23 hour train ride from Turpan to Kashgar thru the Taklamakan Desert, which I opted out. That is way too long for a train ride, to be sharing a sleeper cabin with six beds, and I wont get any sleep. I paid extra for a 2 hour flight so I save the 23 hours and have an extra day in Kashgar.
Kashgar is a frontier town on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, another melting pot of cultures, languages, and traditions. Kashgar doubled as Afghanistan for the filming of The Kite Runner and its appearance more resembles its neighbours than that of china. Kashgar is probably considered the soul of Xinjiang province. There are tours that continue south to Islamabad thru the scenic mountains, but I didnt have time or money for those extensions.
Getting the visa in Korea when you are not applying from your home country was a hassle. They changed the rule that you must have more than six months on your korean residency card to apply for a china visa, which was causing problems since my korean immigration card renews in august, but luckily I was able to sort it out and the trip is a go ahead. I dont think many tourists go this far into the heartland of china and probably stick to the familiar beijing/shanghai route Pagoda Style Great Mosque in Xian. For that reason I went with a private tour guide instead of backpacking, as with the politics of the region, lack of contact with western tourists, and reliance on chinese over english, I could have had a really hard time. People have backpacked this on their own when they had more time than I did and a travel companion. Xinjiang is as large as Europe with vast desert lands so you need to know what you're doing. I've been really excited, and after months of planning, waiting, and organizing, I am about to embark on one of the most exciting trips I've ever been on. Whatever your image of china, either chinatown back home, The Great Wall or the forbidden city, Xinjiang will certainly change all those perceptions This is a very good youtube channel dedicated to uyghar culture and history http://www.youtube.com/user/Duldul601?f eature=watch#g/u ORIGINAL ENTRY WITH ALL PICS IS HERE Read more: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-e ntries/londone7/1/1308566556/tpod.html# ixzz1cgtd3EIg