Are you hoping to make a trip out to Xinjiang sometime in the next couple of years? If not…you should!… but if you are planning a trip I’d like to point you to a new section of the FarWestChina website that I am proud to unveil.

Xinjiang Travel Resources

Any person planning a trip to Xinjiang knows – or will quickly discover – that information on the province is thin. I don’t consider myself an expert on Xinjiang travel, but I have made my way around the province and it’s been my desire for quite some time to translate my experience into helpful travel resources.

To that end I’ve spent a large portion of my recent free time developing the new Xinjiang Travel Resources section of this website. In this section you’ll find:

• Xinjiang Maps: A (growing) collection of provincial and city maps that should help you understand the provincial layout and get around individual cities.
• China Travel Books Guide: Not every travel book suits every traveler. I’ve compared the most popular China guidebooks to tell you which one is right for YOU.
• Xinjiang Hotels: I don’t book hotels, I just recommend the ones I’ve used, seen, or heard about that I like.
• Uyghur Language Guide: Want to learn a few basic Uyghur or Mandarin phrases? Listen as native speakers teach you the most often-used phrases.
• Xinjiang Souvenirs: Learn about a few of the most popular souvenirs to take home from your trip…and get an idea for how much you should spend.
• Xinjiang Food Guide: Get acquainted with what you’re going to eat! Learn which dishes you want to try and how to say them in both Mandarin and Uyghur.
• And more…

Hopefully these resources can be of great benefit to you as you plan your trip to Xinjiang. These pages are still a work in progress, so if you have any comments or suggestions, I welcome you to contact me.

More to Come…

As many of you already know, I have published a Turpan Travel Guide that is currently offered free to subscribers of FarWestChina. I recently completed a guide for Urumqi which will soon be offered, as well as a guide for Kashgar which I have almost finished.

I’m toying with the idea of a forum-like question page wherein travelers can ask questions or review those which have already been asked/answered. I enjoy getting emails from travelers but I think it would be an efficient use of my time if I could compile the answers to many of the most-asked questions onto one page.

Guest Posting

If you’ve recently been to Xinjiang and would like to share some of your experience for others to learn from, please contact me so we can work out a guest post. You can submit a Picture of the Week, a Top 5 Destinations article, or just write up your own story.

Thanks again to everybody for your support, and please pass along this website to anybody you know who will be traveling to Xinjiang!

This week I’m continuing my Top 5 series on Xinjiang travel with a new guest, Glen Russell. If you remember last month, China traveler Graham Woodring shared his top 5 favorite destinations within the province, a list that included the most obvious places to travel in Xinjiang. Today Glen shares with us some of his memories of Xinjiang and a few beautiful photos he took.

If you don’t know Glen Russell you should really get to know him and his writing. He is a Canadian who made his home in Suzhou for two years before moving on to Guangzhou to teach at an International School. He went to Xinjiang in May of 2009 for a short vacation away from the big city. You can read more of his recent writings on either the Lost Laowai website or his personal blog.

So without further ado, here are Glen’s Top 5 Xinjiang travel tips and destinations:

#1 Go: The Karakoram Pass

The biggest highlight on a trip full of highlights for me was the drive along Karakorum Pass.  For four hours there, and four more hours back my jaw was wide open and my camera was working overdrive.  The scenery to the south of Kashgar is simply beyond description.  My one regret of this trip is that I didn’t take this drive farther.  I went as far as Karakul Lake, and if I had done this again I would have gone all the way into Pakistan.

#2 Watch out: Surly McTwoHumps

After the stupendous Karakoram driving we got to ride a camel around Karakul Lake.  After spending so much time in the urban sprawl of Eastern China the chance to breathe some fresh air and spend some time with yaks was well appreciated.  Now my girlfriend’s camel was a nice and polite camel going slowly were he was supposed to.  Mine on the other hand was a jerk amongst camels.  He would constantly try to run ahead or walk in the lake.  Thus his name was born.  Hopefully you can get the good camel when you go.

#3 Use: John’s Cafe

While the trip in Xinjiang was fantastic, there was a bit of an issue when we got back.  The travel agency that arranged the trip for us was nothing short of crooked.  See we decided to not go with the famous John’s Cafe, instead going for a smaller one.  They told us that everything was paid for (and it seemed quite reasonable) but when we got to Karakul, all sorts of things were not provided for us and there were a ton of other hidden charges.  Upon getting to Turpan later on, we went with the John’s Cafe there and received the best of service, at the most reasonable of prices.  I can’t recommend this agency/cafe enough for the good food and fantastic service.

#4 Visit: Kashgar’s Livestock Market

Everyone always talks about the Kashgar Sunday Market, and with good cause.  It is a simply amazing place to be haggled with in multiple languages over everything you’ve ever thought of. However, the most interesting and “far from home” experience that I’ve ever had in my life was at the smaller, Livestock Market a little outside of Kashgar.  There were people literally trading goats for chickens, and I had to duck out of the way more than once while someone was test driving a donkey.  I have never felt so far away from home as I did that moment, and I doubt that I ever will.

#5 22 Hours Later… (Long-Distance Buses)

Given that we had such a short time in the Western Frontier, we had to really focus our traveling.  We decided to center our journey around Kashgar and Turpan.  This seemed all well and good, as both cities were full of sights and character.  However, the trouble was getting between the two.  While we flew to Kashgar from Urumqi (to make the Sunday markets), we didn’t want to fly back.  After missing the boat on the Urumqi train tickets, we were left with a very painful option, a bus.  The bus ride was 22 hours in a very crammed space.  It had no bathroom, and I don’t know if anyone on the bus had ever heard of deodorant.  While I don’t mind long rides, this was most certainly too much, and would not fit into my plans if I were doing it again.

Read more about Glen’s trip to Xinjiang in his ChinaTravel article.

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Have you traveled to Xinjiang? These are just a handful of great places to see in Xinjiang.  If you would like to share your Top 5 favorite destinations from your trip, please contact me.  Don’t worry, photos are welcome but not necessary!

Traveling to Xinjiang? Find out which China Travel Guide is best for YOU!

Xinjiang’s Gobi March, part of a series of four desert races, has been named by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Endurance Competitions in the world. The following is a photo essay of the June 2010 race including quotes from those who both participated and volunteered.

The Gobi March was the hardest thing I have ever done, it was much tougher than I’d expected…We climbed serious hills, went through rocky canyons, up narrow gulleys, over sandy dunes, [and] across river currents.     – Catherine Thomé, race participant

I’ll always remember the sight on the first day after passing dead cows in the gully and reaching the top of the very first ridge. Tian Shan and Bogda mountain ranges, snow capped, left and right and the valley stretching out in front of me for mile after mile, rolling like a stormy green sea. Deep troughs running across the valley floor every 2 or 3 miles and curling plateaus between. Seldom can I honestly say a sight has taken my breath away, but this did.   – John Warren, race participant

We went up flaming mountain where  the monkey god put out the fire with his [fan], or [something] along those lines.. The rest was traversing across hills and negotiating ravines within the hills.. The heat is taking its toll. A competitor just came in and puked about 7 times.    – Patrick Wei, race participant

The sensation every time I chomped into the half watermelon I had in my hands… I had just finished a 250km race and this watermelon was rocking my world! Chomp…chomp…just letting it just drip everywhere, I couldn’t get any dirtier than I was… dripping all over my hands, sipping and slurping the juice, the texture of the melon almost cleaning my teeth, this amazing porous, fresh, crunchy, drippy, half moon shaped yummmmm…wow.    – Luisa Jean Cooper, race participant

[T]he Japanese and South Korean competitors have, as a whole, the best attitudes to the race, always smiling and really happy to enjoy the experience of being there. In the Gobi, the oldest competitor was a woman named Kumi Murakami whose advice to the youngest competitors was: “Stop doing these races if you don’t enjoy them”.   – Melanie Ho, race media member

Whoever signs up for a race like the Gobi should be fully aware that this is a tough endurance ultra race. It’s a 7-day, self-supported race in the desert. A desert is an unforgiving place with ridiculously extreme temperatures, and the only way to survive this is to make sure you have a strong body and strong mind.    – Denvy Lo, Gobi March 2010 Women’s Winner

We finished the race with a 5km sprint. It was somewhat odd bearing in mind the distances we’d already covered but there were not too many complaining. Crossing the line was a wonderful sensation, knowing that I had done enough to win. However, for many of the competitors just getting to the finish [was] the primary objective.    – Dan Parr, Gobi March 2010 Winner

I can’t really believe it’s over, I feel like we are going to go out again tomorrow. Then again, it also feels like we have been out here for more than seven days.    – Travis Watt, race participant

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*Special thanks to Catherine Thomé who graciously offered photos 1,2 & 4 to FarWestChina.

**Thanks again to Melanie Ho for the rest of these pictures and her stories about the race that you can read on her Gobi March Coverage.

On July 23rd, 2010, a Uyghur journalist, activist and blogger named Gheyret Niyaz (a.k.a. Heyrat Niyaz, 海莱特·尼亚孜) was sentenced to 15 years in prison.  His crime, according to many reports, was “endangering state security” by conducting an interview with a Hong Kong newspaper shortly after the Urumqi riots of 2009. He played no role in the actual riots.

Mainstream media has focused its stories on the harsh 15-yr sentence handed down by the Chinese court, but they tend to overlook the details surrounding the accusations made against this prominent Uyghur and exactly why he was convicted.

Who is Gheyret Niyaz? And what exactly did he say in that interview to merit 15 years in prison?

Who is Gheyret Niyaz?

Gheyret Niyaz is a Uyghur journalist who has lived most of his life in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi, with the exception of a 4-year period of university studies in Beijing (Minzu University). He had worked previously as a senior reporter for the Xinjiang Economic News and was an editor/administrator for the popular Mandarin-language Uyghur website Uyghurbiz.

What’s most surprising about this particular Uyghur is that Gheyret Niyaz, unlike many of his peers, is known for his generally supportive views of the Chinese government. He has never been accused of participating in the riots although he was in Urumqi at the time “…on Xinhua Nanlu watching as rioter smashed and looted”.

So why in the world would he be sentenced to 15 years in prison?

The Punishable Interview

A couple weeks following the Urumqi riots an interview was published on Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly) that China authorities believed crossed the line from journalism to criminal activity.

Although people in Xinjiang, including myself, were not able to read this interview at the time due to government-imposed internet restrictions, a translation was soon posted online detailing the discussion between the Hong Kong reporter and Gheyret Niyaz.

In this interview Gheyret explains his predictions prior to July that something was going to happen and how he had tried to warn the authorities:

After the incident in Shaoguan, Guangdong, I felt that something big would happen, that blood would flow…I called a friend of mine in the government and said, “Something is going to happen tomorrow. You should take some measures”…In fact, I was not even the first person to warn the relevant government agencies on July 4. Just after 6 p.m. on July 4 another person had provided a warning.

Just who exactly this other person was that provided a warning is never revealed, but his point is clear: there were serious red flags prior to July 5th. Although these statements certainly don’t reflect well on the government, it’s hardly worth 15 years in prison.

Later in the interview Gheyret expressed another feeling that has been shared by many people throughout Xinjiang, both Uyghur and Han:

Ethnic relations in Xinjiang really became more tense over the past 20 years or so. After taking office, Party Secretary Wang Lequan adopted a high-handed posture that would not allow for any ethnic sentiment among minority populations…[Wang] overemphasized and exacerbated the anti-separatist issue.

Wang has since been replaced by new Party Secretary Zhang Chunxian, but it certainly had nothing to do with pressure from this interview.

Article 111 of the China Criminal Code

Although details of his sentence are difficult to nail down, it’s likely that Gheyret Niyaz was convicted under Article 111 of the China Criminal Code. This section of Chinese law states:

Whoever steals, secretly gathers, purchases, or illegally provides state secrets or intelligence…is to be sentenced from not less than five years to not more than 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment; when circumstances are particularly serious, he is to be sentenced to not less than 10 years of fixed- term imprisonment, or life sentence; and when circumstances are relatively minor, he is to be sentenced to not more than five years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, control, or deprivation of political rights. (emphasis mine)

In other words, this 15 year sentence signifies that the Chinese judicial system sees this interview as an offense of “particularly serious” nature.

Many organizations have appealed to China on Gheyret’s behalf, including the WUC (World Uyghur Congress) – which is a bit ironic considering one of his comments during last year’s interview.

When asked “How do local Uyghur intellectuals view [the president of the WUC]?” Gheyret responded:

They’re not interested. [She] basically has no ideas.

Why the Harsh Sentence?

If you remember, late last year another Uyghur named Alimjan Yimit was convicted under the same Article 111 for a 15 year sentence.  In 2008 a man in Turpan named Ekberjan Jamal was sentenced to 10 years for passing on audio clips of a a protest to friends outside the country.

Now Gheyret Niyaz can be added to the list of those receiving harsh sentences for seemingly minor crimes.

I speculate that such sentences are meant to discourage all Uyghur from conducting interviews with media, even those as harmless as the one above. If that’s the case, it’s working. Every journalist I speak to who has returned from a trip to Xinjiang tells stories about Uyghur interviewees who don’t show up, refuse to answer questions, or don’t even agree to talk at all.

As long as China feels defensive about its position in Xinjiang – and that might be for quite a while – the liberal use of Article 111 will continue to scare all residents within the province.

Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang
Columbia University Press
by James A. Millward
Review by Josh Summers

The term “History of Xinjiang” is very difficult to grasp. Besides the relatively sparse written records of the region and the fact that it has been recorded in a multitude of languages, the most frustrating aspect of the term is that “Xinjiang” as we know it today has only been in existence for a couple hundred years.

There are quite a number of people, especially those with political agendas, who claim an intimate understanding of the region’s history, but very few would be qualified to compile it into a book. Despite my years of living and studying in Xinjiang I readily admit that I could not fill that role. Thankfully the author of Eurasian Crossroads is not only qualified, he also brings to the table a very objective and apolitical view of Xinjiang.

James A. Millward is a professor at Georgetown University who specializes in the history of China and Central Eurasia. He has been published in a variety of scholarly journals and authored at least two other books that I can find on the Qing empire in China. Within the very small world of dedicated Xinjiang scholars, Millward’s name stands out as one of the most recognizable and well-respected (and if my word doesn’t suffice, just google “Xinjiang scholars” and see who comes first).

Millward expresses the goal of Eurasian Crossroads in the preface of his 2007 work:

Although there are important specialised works in English on Xinjiang history, for the non-specialist reader these have been somewhat hard to find and hard to grasp…This book, then, is an attempt to fill that gap with a synthetic survey of the history of the Xinjiang region from the earliest times to the present.

In the chapters that follow the reader is led through a chronological review of Xinjiang that is meant to be accessible both to those who are at least familiar with Central Asian history as well as to those who aren’t.

Unfortunately for Millward, the Xinjiang region doesn’t lend itself to simple understanding. If you think that the only two major characters in Xinjiang’s story are the Han and Uyghur, the first three chapters of this book will come as quite a surprise. Xiongnu, Soghdians, Qarluqs, Qara Khitay, Chaghatayids and many other names I can’t easily pronounce make up a patchwork of Central Asian groups that play key roles in the region’s development.

As frustrating as this portion of the book is to follow, it effectively communicates the fluid nature of Xinjiang’s early history. Up until the past few centuries, official boundaries and the balance of power have shifted with confusing regularity; also, due to Xinjiang’s large size, events in the north often carried no relation to those in the south. It wasn’t until China’s Qing empire in the 18th century that present-day Xinjiang began to take shape.

Whereas the first third of the Eurasian Crossroads touches on selective events from the Stone Age until the 19th century, the middle portion focuses on the struggles between the Qing, Soviet Union, and local leaders. Although Xinjiang was officially given the status of “province” during this time, it was also a period of many rebellions including the establishment of an independent republic.

In a respectably unbiased way, Millward also explores the influence of religion, specifically Islam, on the events that occurred from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The significance of Islam is ironically emphasized by both modern Uyghur and Chinese historians to serve their own interests, but as Millward explains:

Xinjiang Muslims had lived in relative peace and stability under Qing rule for a century before these [uprisings and rebellions], and faith in Islam did not lead to unrest…it was economic distress and rampant misrule…

The final third of the book explores the modern relationship between the People’s Republic of China and its people. From the creation of a farm/military base called bingtuan to the mass migration of Han people into the province, it’s clear that the new government was serious about developing and profiting from this portion of Asia.

Overall, Eurasian Crossroads provides an educational review of Xinjiang’s history reduced to a single volume with a helpful historical timeline and a long bibliography for deeper study. Unlike Christian Tyler’s Wild West China, this book offers a scholarly, politically-detached version of history that doesn’t ingratiate itself to either modern Uyghur or Chinese historians.

For those looking to better understand the conflict between Uyghur and Han in Xinjiang within the context of history or for those who perhaps need a reliable reference tool for research on Central Asia, Eurasian Crossroads is both well-written and well-documented.

The book’s only shortcoming, as best articulated in another review by The New Dominion (now defunct), is the scant use of Uyghur sources to build accounts of many parts of Xinjiang’s history. As one who personally can’t read Uyghur I would find it hypocritical to judge Millward on this point were it not for his comment on the review.

Millward alludes to the idea that although Eurasian Crossroads is comprehensive, there is still much more to learn about Xinjiang. In his comment he speaks to those of us who carry a deeper passion for the province and its history:

I used Uyghur sources in [specific sections of the book], but not elsewhere, to be sure. Lots more for the rest of you to do!

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Buy Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang on: