Although once famous for its “Wandering Lake” mentioned by Marco Polo as his last stop before taking a year-long journey across the Gobi Desert, it has finally made the headlines again in a few very small newspapers here in China’s northwest as the world’s largest potash fertilizer producer.

Merry Christmas to everybody!  Just wanted to say that even though this was our third Xinjiang Christmas away from family, we were still able to manage to have a good time celebrating with friends.  It’s been a busy week trying to prepare for all of the parties and school functions that take place during Christmas so we are looking forward to the upcoming New Year holiday next week wherein we will be getting half of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off from work.
I played my final game of the winter …

“Xinjiang time” isn’t as annoying as people think, but it sure makes Christmas morning in China a drag.

It’s a game that every person who works in business will have to play in some form or another, but it’s a game that is especially popular to play here in China. It’s impossible to avoid for any person who steps foot here and trust me, I’ve tried. It’s the game of politics, and to my utter disappointment I have now discovered that the rules to this game also apply to the basketball court.

I went to my first basketball practice before this big tournament begins and had quite the eye-opening experience -  I found out that there really are good basketball players here in China!  I mean, I never had the false impression that I was some basketball wizard, but up until this point the competition I have played against here has not been fierce.

I have been determined to crack this “mystery of the invisible basketball system” since arriving here in China and this year I am finally getting a tiny insider’s glimpse.

“Everybody keep quiet.  Don’t move.  Let the leaders go first.”
This short phrase, uttered on December 8th, 1994 in Karamay, a small city on the northern edge of Xinjiang, China, still haunts the city.  As the years pass it gets buried further and further back in everyone’s memory in hopes that one day it may actually be forgotten but for now the memory lingers. 

Whether you’re a Muslim visiting a mosque in the early morning, killing a sheep in the late morning, and visiting family and friends in the afternoon or just a bystander observing all these traditions, you’re probably tired. I am, that’s for sure.

There are two major groups in the world today who still use the lunar calendar – the Chinese and the Muslims – and both of them represent a majority of Xinjiang’s population.

Every once in a while there rises from within an ethnic group a particular cultural characteristic that tends to represent the group as a whole. Interestingly it has a tendency to be food: burgers in America; pasta in Italy; rice in China. For the Uyghurs, a small ethnic group situated in this large province of China, it’s their bread…