Before there was Far West China…there was The Opposite End of China.

For over 8 months I have received numerous emails asking me what happened to Michael Manning and his Xinjiang blog “The Opposite End of China”, and for eight months I have given the same response:  “I have no idea”.  He just dropped off the grid and his site was completely shut down.  No warning.  No response to emails.  No nothing.

This week, out of the blue, I get a response to an email I sent back in March letting me know that all is well.  I’m not sure we’ll find out exactly why everything got shut down, but the good news is that all of the old content – stuff that was written about Xinjiang years ago – is back online and available.  I wasn’t really part of the China scene when he was writing so I’m not up-to-date on all his articles, but I do know that during its heyday his writing was much more popular than mine is now.  That’s gotta mean something.

So for another perspective of Xinjiang - albeit a couple of years old - check out the archives at The Oppostie End of China.