Kashgar: Simple Intro to Xinjiang, China

The province of Xinjiang in the northwest of China occupies 1/6 of the country's land. The Kunlun mountain range divides Xinjiang from Tibet to the south. The TianShan mountain range bisects Xinjiang into north and south. Over the centuries conquerors and settlers came from all directions. The current borders are mostly from 1759, except some territory to the west was conceded to the Russians in the 1800s. Southern Xinjiang (Tarim Basin) historically has been home to sedentary Turkic speaking Muslim agriculturalists who became to be known as Uighurs since the early 20th century, the name introduced by Soviets, while Northern Xinjiang originally inhabited by nomadic people, was later settled by all manners of different ethnic groups.

Xinjiang, along with Taiwan, are choice weapons in the latest Sino-US cold war. While the Chinese government has been accused of human rights violations, forced labor, mass detection, cultural suppression, etc. in Xinjiang, there are a few things to keep in mind.

• Many of the transgressions of the Chinese government are not isolated to Xinjiang. The policies are pretty uniform. 
  • Many of the next generation in my family only speak Mandarin, and do not speak Shanghainese, the local language - the speaking of Shanghainese in schools was prohibited - though in recent years the policies have changed. In Xinjiang, Han and Hui (sinicized "Muslim") people speak Mandarin Chinese. Ethnic groups speak their own languages. We came across a number of ethnic people who speak less Mandarin than John; the younger and the more educated, the better their Mandarin. We met one taxi driver that spoke really good Mandarin. He told me it's because he went to Mandarin school. I certainly wasn't expecting a choice of schools.
  • When the single child policy was still in place, there were certainly various levels of coercion and enforcement across the country. Today almost all the ethnic people we spoke with or saw on the street have 2, 3 or more children, while Han/Hui have 1 or 2.
• The old muslim rulers of Southern Xinjiang never resigned to Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) rule. They were continually organizing to overthrow the Qing. In effect, that endeavor is still ongoing today, which the Chinese government is very concerned about. This led to extra surveillance, crackdown, and religious oppression of the Uighurs. 
• In essence, Xinjiang is a colony of Han/Hui Chinese, in the same way the USA is a colony of Europeans, and Israel is a colony of Hebrew speakers in Palestine. Compared to Native Americans and Palestinians, ethnic groups of Xinjians, including Uighurs, are having it very good. John said: Compared to Jerusalem, Kashgar is a festival.

To travel long distances in Xinjiang, we rode the train. Below is a landscape video I took out the window. Note the security fence topped with barbed wire that guards the tracks. From our experience, every inch of track in Xinjiang is protected by a wall or fence. The link is here if the embedded video will not play for you.


Riding the long distance train in Xinjiang is more or less the same, always entertaining/amazing, experience as in other parts of China. Below is our embarkation at Kashi (Kashgar) Railway Station. The train is bound for Chengdu, a 50 hour journey. We will get off in Kuche, 7 hours.


Settling into our "hard seats" with our oranges, bread, water bottle, and window seats (1st below). Our neighbors (2nd below) have a red rocking cradle with a baby tucked in between the seats.




Landscapes. Is that an ancient Silk Road ruin (2nd below)?






Grape vines have long been planted in Xinjiang (1st below). How about those trellises? And more recently, cotton, stacked in white and blue bales (2nd below), whose import is banned in many countries around the world due to allegations it is produced by slave labor.




Electrical Grid Infrastructure.


Greenhouses.


OUr train made just 5 stops on the journey from Kashgar to Kuche. One was at Bachu Railway Station