People Watching

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Still alive if anyone wonders:S The earthquake was near enough to feel the shake, but far enouch to do any harm.

Anyway, right now I'm in Urumqi, Xinjiang provence, a place where most foreigners don't go to when they are in China and probably a wonder to alot of chinese too. Xinjiang is mixpot of chinese ethnic minorities, with uyghurs as the leading one (around 9 million of population), thus its full name "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region". It was once an connecting dot of Silk Road, between east and west.

What is unique about uygurs is that they are totally different from the Han chinese - not only are they muslims, they are also turkic people, which means that they look different and speak a totally different language too. What is fasinating to me is the array of the looks they have, they vary from looking like chinese, indians, gypsies, arabs, turks to completely white, which probably can be traced back to the trading era.

The last few days I have been digesting what I've been seeing - the first really mixed society in China. Although they have no doubt stereotypes for each other, the integration between the two leading races (Han and Uyghur) seems nearly flawless to me, especially the young generation in this capital city of Xinjiang.

It has been a incredible experience to me (I am somehow obsessed with races). For exemple, right now I'm sitting next to an arab-looking guy, and if I spoke to him, he would reply to me in fluent chinese (or ignore me). If I walk outside the internet cafe, I would be right in middle of a stream of non-chinese-looking people and would for a moment forget that I was in China.

Don't get me wrong though, Han-chinese is the far prominent race in Urumqi. In fact, the entire northern (where Urumqi is) and eastern Xinjiang are being sinoized with more and more Han-chinese moving in (from 6% in 1949 to over 40% today), which has been seen as a repression of the Uyghur culture and the main reason for independence tensions. But politic talks are for another time😊

I'll be travelling to Kashgar tomorrow, a southwestern city in Xinjiang where the Han-chinese is the minority race. It would be interesting to a real uyghur city.

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Photos

moustash
The symbol of manhood, I guess, since ALOT of uyghurs has it.

city people
Urumqi is like any other big city in China.

uyghur woman
If the angle is off, then it is a sneak shot, a new-learned technique of mine when taking pictures of people unaware of the my camera.

street signs
Uyghurs use arabic letters, with a different pronouciation. Every sign in the street is in both chinese and uyghur.

night life
The entire China has one time zone, but since Xinjiang is far to the west, the locals adept with 2 hours difference. For exemple, most jobs starts at 10 a.m. and people stay way past midnight.

Comments

[Rasha]

Heellllllllllo Mengan!!!
Hello mr Meng! Va roligt ó läsa din "faktasida" om Urumqi..!!! Skönt ó läsa att inget hänt!!

[Sheng]

Earthquake
Enjoy your travel, even there are still after-earthquakes. I think there is longer away from the quake center as you be on the road nearer Kashgar.

[Mengan]

oh yeah, there is no earthquakes here