If you have the chance to study Uyghur while living in Xinjiang…consider yourself lucky! There is no better way to pick up a language than through immersion, so take advantage of your time in the province. But…what are the best places to study Uyghur in Xinjiang?

A short distance south of Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi there is a portion of beautiful land known as Nanshan, or “South Mountains”. For years tourist and locals have traveled away from the noisy, polluted city life seeking the peaceful scenery that Nanshan provides, but soon they will have an entirely different reason to visit: a new luxury golf course.

Urumqi’s No. 1 Glacier, located about 120km Southwest of the capital, is the largest glacier in Xinjiang. It averages about 500 meters in width and covers a distance of almost 2 1/2 kilometers. Despite how beautiful and enormous it looks, over the past few decades this and the 70+ glaciers that surround it have been shrinking.

Xinjiang authorities aren’t taking any risks this month as the one-year anniversary of the Urumqi riots approaches.
The increased tension and security has taken on many forms which can be seen by the various pieces and comments that have been published over the last couple of weeks.

Xinjiang police in Urumqi held an anti-riot training exercise while Uyghur representatives warn of protests. What could this be other than a countdown leading up to the one-year anniversary of the July 5th riots.

Urumqi train station has played a key role in Xinjiang’s development. It still does as a matter of fact…for every 100 people that enter Xinjiang through the airport, there are 400 more that enter through the train station.

It’s always amusing when city locations are named after landmarks that no longer exist.  For many years Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, used to be a walled city, but this didn’t last too long after the regime change in 1949.
Like most cities in China now, the walls have been torn down and replaced with wide roads to facilitate the country’s growing urban population.  The only part of the wall to remain is the name of its gates, most notably the north and south gates (北门 bĕimén and 南门 nánmén).

If you ever find yourself entering or exiting Urumqi by either train or bus you’re bound to see the following scene – hundreds of white wind turbines dotting the landscape, somehow harnessing vast amounts of energy to be used by the nearby capital. It really is a cool sight, especially with…

I found it very interesting as I emerged from my isolation in Xinjiang to see what everybody was writing about the Urumqi riots.  To be honest I am a bit discouraged that most of the conversation – both in China and among English-speakers – has centered around the portrayal of the incident as opposed to the problems causing the incident.  I suspect the reason for this might be a certain fixation on Chinese media as along with a hesitancy to write about Uyghurs, a generally unknown group.

Xinjiang, in both recent and ancient history, has never been known as a haven of peace and tranquility. Murders and coups of the past have now been replaced by riots and what the Chinese call “splittism” (the desire to separate the country). Here’s a quick look at the riots and unrest that have occurred in Xinjiang’s recent history. It’s not a comprehensive list but it includes the largest events that have occurred since the province’s ‘liberation’ in 1949.