THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RESULTS.

It’s that time of year again! Trees are being decorated, malls are jam-packed and gifts are being wrapped in pretty little bows.

It’s also an opportunity for me to thank you, the FarWestChina reader, for your loyalty over this past year. I continue to act as editor of this website not because it makes me tons of money (it doesn’t), but because I truly enjoy the interaction with people who are equally passionate about the Xinjiang province – regardless of whether we agree on why.

This week I would like to show my appreciation by hosting a few giveaways on all the major FarWestChina platforms. There’s no catch, so there’s no reason not to participate!

What Can I Win?

If you’ve been keeping up with the various book reviews on FWC this year, you might recognize one of these books:

If you don’t remember, click on the covers above to read my review and see what might interest you.

You can’t beat free, right? Well here’s your chance:

On the FWC Site

It’s quite simple, really. If you’re already a member of the FarWestChina group you’re automatically eligible to win! If you’re not, all you need to do is sign up below. As part of the group you’ll receive:

• A free Xinjiang travel guide ebook
• Access to timely, relevant information on Xinjiang news and travel
• Automatic entry into future giveaways
• A chance to win your copy of The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds!

On Facebook

If you haven’t seen the FarWestChina Facebook page, you’re missing out! There’s always a fun discussion, interesting picture, or useless trivia fact that goes up on a daily basis.

Here’s your chance to be a part of the conversation and possibly win a copy of The Tree That Bleeds by Nick Holdstock. Here’s all you have to do:

• “Like” the FWC Facebook page
• Write on the wall – tell about your favorite memory of Xinjiang, submit your favorite picture, or share why you’re interested in the province. As long as its relevant, I don’t care!

On Twitter

Some people use Twitter to broadcast their every move while others use it just to keep up with breaking news. Whatever you use it for, the FarWestChina Twitter feed is the only place you can keep up with practically every newsworthy happening in the province of Xinjiang.

This is all you need to do to enter for a chance to win Wonderful Xinjiang:

• Retweet your favorite FarWestChina post or page…that’s it!

The Fine Print

Deadline to enter for the FarWestChina Xinjiang giveaway is Thursday, December 22nd at 5pm CST. Winners will be announced on Friday, December 23rd with books being shipped shortly thereafter. I promise you I’ll be using the cheapest option possible to ship, so don’t expect them to arrive by Christmas!

Cruising along at speeds that would normally make my palms sweat, central-Asian pop beats rapping out of the car’s stereo, I am sleepily reflecting that crisp mountain air is just about as good as a strong cup of coffee when our guide says something in Uyghur to our driver. Next thing I know, we are careening down a bumpy side road (I use that term loosely) off of the Karakorum Highway, clouds of dust billowing up behind us.

Yusef swivels round to face us from the front seat, grinning. “A Tajik wedding! I can tell because of all the fancy cars!” The driver picks his way forward on the now nonexistent road. I see a small huddle of men in front of a group of simple clay houses, standing dourly around a fire. I am skeptical.

“Let me go talk to them first,” says Yusef. “Tajiks are either very friendly, or VERY crazy. You stay in the car.” He hops out of the cab; the men watch his approach. My boyfriend and I speculate on the odds that we’ll have to rescue our guide from the midst of a fistfight.

Tense minutes pass before Yusef hops quickly back into the car. I’m relieved to see he’s laughing. “This is a funeral!” As though that’s the funniest thing that could have ever happened.

“But there is a wedding on the other side of town!,” he crows. Before we can object to gatecrashing a second time, we’ve arrived (the town is not very big – again, loose usage of that word) at what is clearly a happier affair.

He schmoozes us an invite in seconds flat, teaches us how to say “Congratulations” in Tajik, and takes us on a tour and meet-and-greet as though we were visiting his own family. Before you can say “Mubarak” (Congratulations), I’ve become the unofficial wedding-photographer, we’re watching sheep being butchered for the wedding feast, and we’re posing at our own photo op with the blushing bride.

We even get an invite to return the next day for continued celebrations. An unforgettable morning during our trip and one of the big positives of traveling with a guided tour through Xinjiang.

Is a Tour Guide in Xinjiang for me?

If you have unlimited time – if you already know Xinjiang – if you really love adventure travel – then you can probably skip exploring the region with a tour.

If you don’t have endless amounts of vacation time, it’s your first time to the region, or you want to add another dimension to your travel experience, signing up for a tour or hiring a guide can help you get the most – maybe even more than you expected – out of your days in Xinjiang.

To add a bit of background: Xinjiang was our first stop in a two-month visit to China. We prefer to travel independently, but until about a month before arriving in China, we’d never even heard of Xinjiang. Not knowing what to expect in terms of infrastructure and knowing we could only spend a week in the province, we opted for a private tour in the hopes that we could get a decent taste of the province in this short amount of time. The package included a route recommended by the tour company, a dedicated driver and guide.

Xinjiang Tour Tips – The Bottom Line

For us it was definitely the right choice. Purely from a logistics point of view, there is no way we would have been able to see as much as we did had we attempted to plan a similar trip on our own. Beyond that, we were afforded a much more intimate glimpse into Xinjiang life.

Having a local guide, we could ask countless questions about any little thing that sparked our curiosity. We could communicate much more directly with people we met thanks to his translation. And of course we got to hear of his opinions and experiences from growing up and living in Xinjiang.

Before you run to sign yourself up for a tour though, here are a few things to think about:

• Buckle up: (*Not literally; no one in Xinjiang wears seatbelts!) Do your research before you get there. Working with a good company/team can make all the difference in the world. Also, don’t be afraid to take control of your experience when possible. Customizing your package before you get there, asking the guide to stop one more time to take even more photos, skipping something on the proposed itinerary because you’re just too tired. Although you’ve hired a guide, ultimately it’s your trip and it’s up to you to communicate what you need and want to make it work for you.
• Get Zen: Make sure you show up with the right attitude. The tour experience can vary depending on whom you’re traveling with. Guides are human; ours had plenty of idiosyncrasies and interesting viewpoints that we didn’t always necessarily agree with. I took these as a chance to glimpse the world through a completely different point of view and it only enhanced my experience. Most days there was no coffee (this may seem like a small thing – unless you are a coffee addict like me). Sometimes the state of the toilets sent me scrambling for a bush to pee behind. I’d been told that the tour could cater for vegetarians – “No problem!” Skip to a couple days into the tour when we were trying to sort out supplies for the desert trek: “The problem is that you’re a vegetarian.” The solution for all of this: get Zen!
• Enjoy the ride: Make sure you show up with the right expectations. That is, none. Maybe the weather will suck. Maybe you’ll wake up to the most spectacular sunrise you’ve ever seen. Maybe you’ll miss the Sunday market. Maybe you’ll happen upon an unexpected wedding and end up the guest of honor. Anything and everything is possible; expect nothing and see what surprises Xinjiang has in store for you!

—————————————————————–

Born and raised in the States, Jennifer spent six years living and working in Switzerland before she and her boyfriend Roman decided to start a new adventure and fulfill their dream of traveling the world. They are currently 14 months and eight countries into their big trip. Read more stories of their time in Xinjiang – including great photos – on their travel website.

One of the most frustrating realities for any Xinjiang enthusiast or activist is the relative obscurity of the province and its Uyghur people. Unlike their Tibetan neighbors to the south, international understanding of Uyghur culture is tainted by the only kind of news that makes it out of the province: bad news.

Unless one walks through the alleys of Kasghar’s Old Town, visits the home of a Uyghur family, or shops a bazaar, where else can an introduction to Uyghur culture be made?

In the book Silken Threads from the Past: Uyghur People & Their Culture, photographer Aphra Pia travels along the Silk Road to capture the heartbeat of Xinjiang through her camera lens.

The more I look critically at this collection of Xinjiang photos, I am reminded about how odd some of these scenes must be to somebody who has never experienced Xinjiang:

• An old man carrying a back-breaking load down a dirt road.
• Young girls with the most bizarre haircut (shaved everywhere except the bangs).
• A mode of public transportation I affectionately refer to as the “trog” (part truck, part hog) and all 20 people who pile onto it!
• A teenager who works the family business, oblivious to all of the dead lamb carcasses hanging around her.

All common scenes within the province, yet unique to anybody outside – even most Han Chinese. Aphra Pia gathered her most poignant photos of both the province and the people so that everyone has the opportunity to see past the negative news clips into what makes this place so special.

Uyghur people are like no other group that I’ve ever met, but that’s a very difficult sentiment to form into words. Silken Threads from the Past offers a wonderful collection of photographs giving more insight into Uyghur people than most any article or China travel book I’ve read.

I would like to note one mistake, however, that is common among many travelers to the Xinjiang province. While the Uyghur people do constitute the largest minority group in the province, they are not alone here. In a book whose subtitle reads “Uyghur People and Their Culture”, it was interesting to find a few pictures of Hui, Tajik, and I believe I saw one Kazakh. It’s a difficult distinction to make, I admit, but it’s something I wanted to point out.

If you want to see examples of more pictures, head on over to Aphra Pia’s website. There you can see examples of additional work and buy her book if you’re so inclined.

Some people might call it an “inferiority complex”, but when you’re dealing with the sensitive ethnic issues that China’s far west province of Xinjiang faces, it’s best to call it what it really is. Xinjiang suffers from a “minority complex”.

How can we be for sure that officials in Xinjiang suffer from this minority complex? All it takes is a quick look at the headlines over the past 2 years.

If you’ve been following the FarWestChina Facebook fanpage (why aren’t you a fan?) you’ll recognize that these are real headlines from Xinjiang. It is a list of publicity stunts that turn simple Xinjiang minority symbols into a comical farce.

The World’s Largest Wooden Plate

At 2.4 meters in diameter, China claims that this is the largest wooden plate in the world. It was built as part of a festival in Shawan county in Xinjiang to celebrate the famous DaPanJi (which literally means “big plate chicken”…hence the big plate) and actually broke a Guinness World Record.

The World’s Longest Tablecloth

Chinese officials describe this as the world’s longest embroidered tablecloth. With a total length of 90 meters of Kazakh handiwork, this is yet another Xinjiang record that has been recorded by the Guinness Book of Records.

Missing from this record book? The world’s longest table. Kinda seems pointless, doesn’t it?

China’s Oldest Man

At the ripe old age of 123, a Uyghur man named Sadiq Sawut who lives in Kashgar is considered to be China’s oldest living man. No doubt everybody is clamoring to find their way onto this annually published list by the Gerontological Society of China.

Also, if you’re wondering, the woman next to him is older by 2 years – and she looks like she’s seen happier days.

The World’s Largest Naan Flatbread

30kg of mutton (lamb meat). 125kg of flour. 16kg of onions. 90kg of water. Combine those together and you’ll get the world’s largest Uyghur naan flatbread. It took 12 men a total of 10 hours to get this thing mixed and baked. Wish I could have seen the oven!

Reports claim that this could feed 10,000 people, but one Facebook fan correctly noted that it obviously wouldn’t be 10,000 Uyghur people. They can pound Uyghur naan down!

The World’s Longest Horse Sausage

Ok, so this one doesn’t claim to break any records, but I can’t imagine this happens too often. At least I hope not.

It required a total of 38 horses for these Xinjiang chefs to make a 213-meter sausage that weighs 1,256kg. Appetizing, don’t you think?

The World’s Largest Minority Dance Group

During the same event where the longest tablecloth was unveiled (see above), organizers also decided to break another coveted record – the world’s largest group dance.

17,000 dancers – both professional and amateur, filled the fields of Altay during the kickoff for Xinjiang’s Ethnic Culture Tourism Festival. The effort was not in vain, as again yet another Guinness record was achieved.

The World’s Largest National Park

Finally, in 2007 China vowed to make the Kanas Lake Reserve in Xinjiang into the world’s largest national park. At the time the park only covered 1,000 sq km, but should soon cover over 9,000 sq km.

Why make this distinction in an autonomous region in Xinjiang? There’s no other explanation than the fact that Xinjiang has a minority complex.

Plain. And. Simple.

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Xinjiang, chances are you’ve heard this song more times than you can count. It is, in my opinion, the most popular song in Xinjiang.

How popular, you ask? It’s so well known that even Han Chinese – most of whom can’t speak the Uyghur language – can sing along and know the meaning of the words. I find myself humming the tune every once in a while for no reason as well.

Check out the video yourself and see if you recognize it:

Oddly, the three women in this video aren’t from Xinjiang. They are Uyghur from Uzbekistan and they represent the finest of what is Uyghur pop. The trio, named Shahrizoda (شهريزاده), have quite a few other well-known songs, but this is by far the most common.

So…what do you think?