China or Central Asia......the Uighur people

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  Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur, China
Saturday, July 31, 2010

Urumqi must be one of the most culturally diverse cities in Asia. You may remember the riots here just over a year ago; the Uighur Chinese minority were involved in clashes with Han Chinese and the predominately Han Chinese police. Han Chinese populate most areas of the country and are considered to be 'real' Chinese at least as far as Beijing is concerned. However there are 56 minorities in china including the Uighur Chinese most of whom reside in the northwest province of xinjiang of which Urumqi is the capital. At one time in the 90s it was over 90% Uighur, now it is nearer 50%. Still only 4% of the population in Xinjiang province are Han Chinese, the rest hail from Mongolia, Turkey, Russia and the 'Stan States'. The region has a turbulent history dating back 1000's of years and right up until 1949 the western city of kashgar was nearly taken control of by the eastern Turkish states. But Beijing has a vested interest in the province as it contains the majority of China's oil. So in 2000 it launched an incentive for Han Chinese to relocate to the city and 'repopulate' the region. According to some this is the source of the tensions as all the good jobs were given to the new Han Chinese population and understandably tensions rose leading to riots.

The uighers consider themselves to be Central Asian and not Chinese and this can easily be seen on the streets; If i had been dropped here unknowingly I would say I was in a central Asian country without a doubt. Russian, Mongolian, and Arabic genetic traits make it a seem a world away from China and geographically it is.

Whilst walking around I never sensed any tension, people mingled with one another quite happily it would seem but in a few hours it's impossible to get a true understanding. One thing I did notice was the strong Han Chinese security presence. A few armored trucks on the streets, police vans and most surprisingly groups of what appeared to be 15 year old kids walked around with batons. No doubt Beijings way of asserting authority over the ethnic population. 

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