Day 377: In The Dead We Dwell

Shihezi – Urumqi, China

We made our way back from Shihezi to Urumqi today. Urumqi is the gateway city to and fro Xinjiang to other Chinese provinces. I was to catch a train towards Beijing the next day.

Xiaoyun and Wenwen showed me around their town. First destination was South of Urumqi. This part was almost entirely occupied by the Uyghurs. Going into the area on a cab felt like going into another country. Gone were the Chinese features, and along came the Turkish. Buildings also differ in their look; they’re of Islamic flavor. I had not realized how badly the segregation between the ethnic groups was. My relatives wouldn’t even let me going down the streets, so all I could do was taking photos from the cab.

Apparently, after an incident in July 5, 2009, the Han Chinese and the Uyghur Chinese now choose to keep to themselves. There’s an unspoken tension amongst them. On that particular day, an ethnic clash broke out and the Uyghurs attacked the Han Chinese causing hundreds of deaths. I didn’t get the entire back story for it’s still fresh in the mind and still quite a taboo to talk about. Besides, what I’d have heard would be very one-sided and biased. So here’s a Wiki entry about the incident.