This plan to demolish 85% of the area of the Old City of Kashgar and to relocate its population, a project with “unusually strong backing” from the upper echelons of the central government, has actually been in motion for quite some time. The incentives mentioned in the NYT – which, frankly, are a pretty paltry sum even in Kashgar – have been offered before to Old City families whose houses have collapsed, sometimes as a result of the occasional earthquakes that do affect the region. (See last week’s quake in Qarghiliq.) To my knowledge, not many had taken up the government’s offer of a new apartment on the outskirts of town, and the city even helped some build new houses in the Old City. Back then, the city was making money charging admission to parts of the Old City, which I suspect comprises the 15% to be left behind or “rebuilt” as a sort of theme park or minority zoo.

Now, no more. The bulldozers have begun to roll. Like the rest of China’s loveliest old places, such as UNESCO World Heritage Site Pingyao, whatever is left of Old Kashgar will fall to excessive and thoughtless commercialization, a trend mourned today, ironically, on Xinhua’s Xinjiang front page. At least they have left Pingyao intact, with the addition of plumbing, which officials apparently consider an impossibility for Kashgar.

Before I say anything else, please note that there is some effort within the PRC to save what may be saved of Old Kashgar under the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, though they are more concerned with projects elsewhere.  See their appeal here.

There is little to be said that Josh at Far West China has not already said. Yes, it is silly to think that Uyghur heritage is made of mud and straw, and we know that the people of Xinjiang are stronger than any construction project. This is not the end.

This is, however, a crude and transparent attempt to forcefully remake a social order by altering the place that its members live in. The government of the PRC is overtly concerned with the spaces that people inhabit, both symbolic and physical, as tools of statecraft and social engineering. The crackdown on mäshräp in Ghulja in 1997 demonstrated the PRC’s fear of unauthorized social movements, of varieties of organization and association that it cannot read or understand. The state’s insistence on maintaining an institution of both administrative and spatial ethnic segregation in the educational system even while working to culturally and linguistically assimilate minorities into mainstream Chinese society demonstrates that it has trouble understanding social orders that it has not itself brought into being, social orders that it could perhaps otherwise co-opt for political purposes.

The Old City of Kashgar is not just a warren of beautiful architecture expressive of a certain culture of building, as the Western media emphasizes, but a malleable concrete manifestation of a tightly-woven and long-standing social order undergoing constant evolution. Its alleys and courtyards mark memories, both personal and collective, that build community in an internally coherent way. I do not think that this is necessarily a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism, as the Chinese state is likely to claim. Indeed, terrorism may spring more readily from the impersonal apartment blocks brought about by the same modernism that inspires fundamentalism. Rather, I think that this is a place where a separate community and perhaps even a burgeoning civil society to rival the influence of PRC officialdom persist. This is a place where old families with old connections carry memories reflected in the streetcorner mosques, places they pass every morning and evening. Old Kashgar is not full of culture – it is full of lives.

Over time, after these families move into their new apartments, with just enough room for two parents and one child, with water in the toilet, with no private family courtyard where a woman may go unveiled, they will rework the space to their own purposes. Anyone who has visited a non-Chinese family in Ürümchi has seen an example of this reconfiguration. Although the urban landscape of Ürümchi has seen the hand of state planning since as early as the 1890s, and urban planning in the 1930s largely determined the boundaries of today’s ethnic neighborhoods, the city’s residents continue to remake even the most carefully planned spaces. Old work units have become high- or low-class neighborhoods, and merchants at the Grand Bazaar build little tearooms in the back of their stalls. Perhaps because of the social atomization that apartment life brings, even when the built environment is meant to create a particular kind of community, no set of uniform apartment blocks remains as planned for long – see the city of New York, where asymmetrical neighborhoods have arisen from a perfectly “logical” grid. Inhabitation brings its own social order. This, too, shall pass.

As someone who loves old things, I am comforted by the knowledge that, even as the state and the corporations that support it impose a new and uniform geography, unexpected things that people find important tend to stay standing. Even where jungles are clear-cut in favor of pastures or coffee plantations, a scattering of old and sacred trees remains. In fact, right beside my own apartment block where I once lived in Ürümchi, in a complex razed and recreated by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, where everything was evenly paved and smelled of paint and plaster, there stood an old and wizened poplar tree. What once happened there, I wonder? Will this, then be the fate of Old Kashgar?

Suggested further reading:

Scott, James C. Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

Bovingdon, Gardner. “The history of the history of Xinjiang” in Twentieth Century China 26, No. 2 (2001),

Bovingdon, Gardner and Näbijan Tursun. “Contested histories” in S. Frederick Starr, ed. Xinjiang: China’s Muslim borderland. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 2004, pp. 353-374.

Dautcher, Jay. Down a narrow road: identity and masculinity in a Uyghur community in Xinjiang China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. See especially Part I on “space and place.”

Recently, the following post, once found at this address, was passed on to me by a friend. It seems to have circulated on the Web since perhaps early November. It is a lengthy and impassioned plea for, at the very least, some respect and hope for the people of Xinjiang of all stripes, who, the author argues, have endured countless hardships for the benefit of their fellow citizens in the East. The author expresses despair at the dashed hopes of the Opening Up of the West and anger at the cancer left by atomic bomb tests in Lop Nor.

The whole document has a feeling of the old Yip Harburg song, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” “Once I built a railroad…”

My English translation is a little hurried. Comments are welcome.

Also, does anyone else think that the author must be from Korla?

今天的十大头条： 新疆人，对不起，谢谢你

Today’s Top Ten Leading Stories: Xinjiang People, I’m Sorry, Thank You

对不起，谢谢你
新疆的石油运走了，
新疆的天然气运走了，
新疆的棉花运走了，
新疆的钾盐运走了，
新疆的黄金运走了，
新疆的和田玉运走了
……

I’m sorry, thank you

Xinjiang’s oil was transported away,

Xinjiang’s natural gas was transported away,

Xinjiang’s cotton was transported away,

Xinjiang’s leopoldite was transported away,

Xinjiang’s gold was transported away,

Xinjiang’s Khotan jade was transported away

…

原子弹却降临在新疆了
……

The atomic bomb was indeed tested in Xinjiang

…

新疆，一百六十万平方公里的土地，一千九百万各族人民.我们世世代代生活在那片土地
上.我们骄傲，我们自豪.没有理由，就因为那片土地叫新疆.

Xinjiang, an area of 1 600 000 square kilometers, 19 000 000 people of every ethnic group. We have lived on that patch of earth for generations. We are proud, we feel proud. There is no reason, just that that patch of earth is called Xinjiang.

这片占祖国六分之一版图的土地，承载着什么，又蕴藏着什么.这里有四十七个民族的儿
女，或耕耘，或牧羊，或买卖，或采矿.千年的腥风血雨，早已被坎儿井的清清流水洗得
干干净净；千年的历史沧桑，早已被天山上的雪莲花薰陶得浓郁幽香.新疆人，无论什么
民族什么宗教信仰，都渴望自己的家乡能够拥有平等的发展机会与空间.

This patch of earth that occupies one-sixth of the area of our ancestral country, what does it contain, and what does it hide. Here there are the sons and daughters of forty-seven minzu, working the fields, or shepherding sheep, or buying and selling, or mining. One thousand years of bloody history have long since been washed clean by the clear flowing waters of the karez; one thousand years of great historical changed have long since been purged by the snow lotuses and Coumarouna odorata of the Tianshan until they are sweetly fragrant. Xinjiang people, no matter what their minzu or religious beliefs, all hope that their home can have the opportunity and time to develop fairly.

西部大开发，一个曾经让我们振奋不已的口号.一时间，就连塔克拉玛干边缘的万年荒山
上，也用白色的石头拼出了大字：西部大开发，新疆是重点，巴州要大干！

The Great Opening Up of the West, a slogan that once endlessly inspired us. At one time, even upon the mountains around the edge of the Täklimakan, uncultivated for untold ages, we used white stones to spell out big characters: The Great Opening Up of the West, Xinjiang is the focus, Bazhou will make a big effort!

曾经告诉过我们，创世未有的发展机遇降临在了我们的头上；曾经告诉过我们，克服与忍
受暂时的损失与困难，因为长远的幸福是属于我们的；曾经告诉过我们，资源埋在地下永
远变不了金钱；曾经告诉过我们，大型基础设施建设会带动新疆人的就业；曾经告诉过我
们，长长的管子把石油天然气送到了内地，长长的管子还会将大把大把的税收送到新疆人
的手中……

Once they told us, an opportunity for development the likes of which the world had never seen had fallen on our heads; once they told us, endure and withstand temporary loss and hardship, because long-term fortune belonged to us; once they told us, resources buried underground would never become money; once they told us, the construction of large-scale basic-level facilities would spur the employment of Xinjiang people; once they told us, long pipes would take oil and natural gas to the Interior, long pipes might still bring piles of tax revenues to Xinjiang people’s hands…

曾经……

Once…

新疆是一个什么样的地方？涓涓细流会将天山与昆仑山的雪水送到牧区农场，一眼望不到
边的大草原，遍布着牛羊……新疆，就是这样一个地方，绿洲农业，咱不靠天吃饭，旱涝
保收；高山草甸牧业，咱不愁一个月不下雨草场就会旱死.新疆没有发生过饥荒，三年自
然灾害时期，内地人就是扒在火车车厢底下也要来新疆，就算是在星星峡被当作盲流拦住
遣返回原籍，也要在半道上跳下火车徒步进新疆.新疆，就是这样，那里有土地，那里有
雪水，那里，有希望.

What kind of place is Xinjiang? Brooks and streams may carry the meltwaters of the Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains to pastures and fields, a grassland the edge of which the naked eye cannot see, covered in cows and sheep… Xinjiang, it’s just this kind of place. Oasis agriculture, we don’t depend on Heaven to eat, the harvest is protected through draught and flood. Animal husbandry in the mountain grasslands, we don’t worry if the ranges dry out after a month without rain. Xinjiang has never had a famine, a three-year period of natural disasters. People from the Interior even want to cling to the bottoms of train cars to come to Xinjiang. Even treated in the Starry Gorge [a gorge in the Hexi Corridor] as aimless migrants, barred, and made to return to their place of origin, they want to jump out of the train on the way and walk into Xinjiang. Xinjiang, it’s like this. There is land there, there is meltwater, there is hope.

我们觉得自己生活得很幸福.

We felt that we lived happily.

可是，突然有一天，人家告诉我们，人家来帮咱们了，咱们的生活会更好更好了！这个时
候，我们心存感激，我们同样被从那种平静的生活中唤起而后振奋，因为我们被告知
，会有更大的希望！

But, suddenly one day, someone told us, there’s someone coming to help us, our life is going to be better, better! At this time, we felt appreciative. We, too, were stirred up and excited out of that peaceful and tranquil kind of life of ours, because we were signaled, we may have even more hope!

……

…

一晃八年了.

All of a sudden, eight years passed.

当初为我们憧憬过美好蓝图的人啊，你们在哪儿呢？

Those of you who looked forward to a beautiful blueprint for us, where are you?

请来看看我们的新疆.

Please come and look at our Xinjiang.

西部大开发，究竟是什么？

The Great Opening Up of the West, what is it really?

资源，包括那些具有战略意义的能源，被那条长长的管子送到了沿海地区.这，我们不计
较.可是我们又得到了什么？就业机会吗？看看那些从事新疆能源开发的企业，不都是内
地的大型企业吗？咱们新疆人的孩子，又何曾享受过这样的就业机会.西安石油学院毕业
的新疆孩子，想要进新疆的石油单位工作那是难上加难.因为这些待遇优厚的工作岗位，
全部都被这些内地企业自身的员工所占据.你可以随便去一家石油石化单位听听，遍地北
京口音、东北口音、山东口音，就是没有新疆口音.那咱们新疆的孩子能在石油单位找到
工作吗？不是不可以，而且还基本专业对口：加油站给汽车加油.带动相关产业的发展吗
？要知道，西气东输的管道，是在宝鸡生产的.高水准的生活吗？你知道在上海一方天然
气是多少钱吗？一块二；你知道在新疆一方天然气是多少钱吗？一块二毛五.而你知道新
疆人的工资水准是多少吗？一个教龄三十年的中教高级教师，月薪不过两千五，这还是
06年加薪后的工资；一个五十岁的正厅级干部，月薪加补贴不过三千块.那么普通老百姓
呢？工人、农民、一般公务员呢？我们在消化着巨大的剪刀差，我们在默默无闻得为东部
的大发展埋单.

Resources, including those power sources which hold a military significance, have been taken away by those long, long tubes to the coastal regions. This, we don’t bicker about. But what have we then received? Employment opportunities? Look at those enterprises that handle the exploitation of Xinjiang’s resources, aren’t they all big companies from the Interior? The children of we Xinjiang people, how then have they enjoyed these kinds of employment opportunities[?] Xinjiang kids who graduate from Xi’an Oil Institute, if they want to enter a Xinjiang oil work unit, that’s harder than hard. Because these generously-paying work positions, all of them have been taken by those big companies from the Interior’s own employees. You can go to any oil work unit and have a listen, it’s all Beijing accents, North-Eastern accents, Shandong accents, but there are no Xinjiang accents. So can kids from our Xinjiang find work in an oil work unit? It’s not that they may not, and what’s more they are proficient in the most basic profession: putting gas in cars at gas stations. Does this spur the growth of related industries? You have to know, the pipe that take Western gas to the East, this was built in Baoji [a city in Shaanxi with an amusing name]. And a high standard of living? Do you know how much a cubic meter of natural gas costs in Shanghai? 1.2 RMB. Do you know how much a cubic meter of natural gas costs in Xinjiang? 1.25 RMB. And do you know how much the standard salary of a Xinjiang person is? A high-level middle-school teacher with thirty years’ experience, his or her monthly salary is not above 2500, and this is after the pay raise in ’06. A fifty-year-old main-office-level [正厅级?] cadre, his or her monthly salary is not above 3000 RMB. So what about regular everyday people? Workers, peasants, normal service personnel? We are digesting an enormous disparity. Unknown to the public, we are paying the bill for the great development of the East.

乌鲁木齐与库尔勒，一北一南，南北疆的领头城市.让我们来听听这两个城市老百姓的故
事.

Ürümchi and Korla, one in the South, one in the North, the leading cities of North and South Xinjiang. Let us listen to the stories of the everyday people of these two cities.

乌鲁木齐，一个人口二百万的大城市，却拥有着一个长期困扰老百姓生活的难题：打车难
.上下班的高峰期，老百姓往往站在零下二十多度的严寒里，半个小时打不上一辆车.你要
问出租车都到哪儿去了？问一百位司机九十九个都会告诉你：加气站排队加气呢！乌鲁木
齐的出租车烧液化气，新疆是产油的地方，怎么会缺液化气呢？独山子石化的同志们会耐
心的告诉你：新疆同胞们，咱们忍忍吧，新疆的石油和天然气得保证西气东输和内地大城
市用油的需要……当北京的出租车换上了大排量的伊兰特时，当上海居民的厨房里冒出了
纯蓝的灶火时，请想想，生产石油与天然气的新疆人民，还在寒风里站着；新疆的司机，
还排在一眼望不到头的长队里焦急的等待，而这些司机，也得吃饭也得买房也得供孩子上
学，他们本来可以拉活的时间，白白的耗在了等待上……

Ürümchi, a city with a population of 2 000 000 [actually around 3 500 000, now], indeed has a difficult long-term problem for the lives of everyday people: it’s hard to get a cab. At rush hour when people get on and off work, everyday people often stand in the more-than-negative-twenty-degrees bitter cold. Even after half an hour, they cannot get a cab. Want to ask where the cabs have gone? Ask one hundred drivers and ninety-nine will tell you: they’re in line at the gas station to get gas! The cabs of Ürümchi have been converted to run on natural gas, but Xinjiang is a place that produces oil, so why convert them to run on natural gas? The comrades at Dushanzi Petroleum will patiently tell you: Xinjiang siblings, let’s sit tight, eh? Xinjiang’s oil and natural gas have to guarantee the transportation of Western gas to the East and the oil-use needs of the big cities in the Interior… When the taxis of Beijing are traded for great lines of Elantras, when in the kitchens of Shanghai a pure blue stove-flame is lit, please think, the people of Xinjiang who manufacture oil and natural gas are still standing in the bitter wind. Xinjiang’s drivers are still waiting impatiently in a line, the end of which cannot be seen, and these drivers, they also have to eat and give their children schooling. When they could be making a living, they are wasting their time pointlessly waiting…

库尔勒，一个新兴的石油城市，南疆经济的桥头堡，塔里木油田指挥部所在地.石油人来
了，我们端着哈达欢迎您！指挥部建设需要用地，可以！您知道现在塔里木油田指挥部的
所在地过去是什么吗？是上千亩的良田，是库尔勒的各族人民世世代代耕作的良田.祖国
需要，石油人需要，我们无怨无悔，献出了这片沃土.可是，时至今日，塔指的一栋栋高
楼大厦建起来了，五星级公寓建起来了，塔里木油田的一口口油井喷油了，塔里木大气田
的天然气送到东方了，有谁想过那些失去土地的农民现在在干什么？那么请到库尔勒的街
头看看吧.扫大街的环卫工人，清一色的少数民族职工，问问他们原来是干什么的？他们
会遥望一片繁华的塔里木油田指挥部，告诉你，那里曾是我的家.这还是解决了就业的，
那些数以千计的失去土地的农民呢？他们没有技术没有知识，库尔勒的环卫战线也不可能
安排那么多的人.请到库尔勒河的葵花桥头看看吧.每天早晨，都有黑压压一片的壮劳
力，集中在这里，被需要临时工的老板们挑来挑去，幸运的，被挑中，干一天临时工，挣
些前，第二天早晨继续到这里来撞运气；不幸的，过了中午还没有被挑走，就只好回家饿
肚子，祈祷真主明天能赐给他一个临时工的机会……

Korla, an up-and-coming oil city, the bridgehead of the Southern Xinjiang economy, the place of the headquarters of Tarim Oilfields. The oil men came, we welcomed you with qadaqs! [a blue scarf given by Mongols to guests] The Headquarters needed land to be constructed, sure! Do you know what the current location of the Headquarters used to be? It was thousands of mu of good farmland, the good farmland worked by generations of the people of Korla of all kinds. The ancestral countries needs, the oil men need. We didn’t complain or regret. We gave up this patch of fertile land. But, up until the present day, the big buildings and towers of the Tarim Oilfields Headquarters were built, five-star apartments were built, the oil wells of the Tarim oilfields spurted oil, and the natural gas of the Tarim natural gas fields was sent to the East. Has anyone thought of what those people who lost their land are doing now? Then please go to the streets of Korla and have a look. The sanitation workers who sweep the streets, all of them minority workers, ask them, what did they used to do? They may look at the glorious Tarim Oilfields Headquarters in the distance and tell you, that was once my home. Is this solving the employment problem, those thousands of workers who lost their land? They have neither craft nor knowledge, nor can Korla’s Sanitation Front arrange so many people. Please go to the head of the Kuihua Bridge over the Korla River and have a look. Every day in the early morning, there are endless and dense mobs of strong laborers. They concentrate there, picked out by bosses in need of temporary labor. The lucky ones, picked out, do a day of temporary work, earn some money, and, on the next day, return here to try their luck. The unlucky ones, who have not been picked out by after noon, have to go home hungry and pray that, tomorrow, they will be granted a temporary work opportunity.

这还只是能源.其他资源呢？黄金呢？钾盐呢？玉石呢？

This is all still just energy. What about other resources? Gold? Leopoldite? Jade?

大规模的开发，富起来的到底是谁？

Large-scale exploitation, who’s really getting rich?

西部大开发，过了八年了，我们为什么只看到一个个资源项目上马，却很少看到科教文化
卫生人才方面的扶持与投资？要开发一个地区，资源是一条路；可是资源开采完了呢？我
们还能拥有什么？没有科教与人才的积累，到底还有多大的发展空间？

The Great Opening Up of the West, it’s been eight years. Why have we only seen a few resource projects get going, but not seen any assistance or investment in terms of popular science, culture, sanitation, or training? In order to open up a region, resources are one road, but what about when the resources are all exploited up? What can we have? Without an accumulation of popular science and talented people, how much room is there then for development?

你可曾知道，堂堂新疆大学历史系的学生们在校图书馆里竟然找不到《万历十五年》这样
非常普遍的书籍？你可曾知道，堂堂华夏第一州–巴音郭楞蒙古自治州，竟然没有一所
正规的图书馆、博物馆？大城市如此，小城市与农村又是怎样？西部大开发，为什么我们
很少见到这样的项目与投资？

Are you aware that the students of the great Xinjiang University’s History Department cannot find extremely common books like Wanli Shiwu Nian in their library? Are you aware that the great First Prefecture in China, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, still has not a single regular library or museum? Big cities are like this, so what can small cities and villages be like? The Great Opening Up of the West, why do we so rarely see projects and investment like this?

新疆人，老实巴交的新疆人，被内地人动不动就称作野蛮人的新疆人……就这样默默无闻
的承受着一切……换个角度思考，如果北京的出租车司机成天排队加不上油，会是怎么样
？如果山东的农民成批成批的失去土地，就像库尔勒的农民那样，还会不会如此沉默的承
受一切？

Xinjiang people, honest Xinjiang people, Xinjiang people who cannot move for the Interior people are who are called barbarous… Unbeknownst, they have borne all of this… Thinking about it from another perspective, if Beijing’s taxi drivers were in line all day and could not get gas, what would it be like? If the peasants of Shandong lost their land bit by bit, just like the peasants of Korla, would they still quietly bear all of this?

前两天，把原子弹空投到日本领土的美军飞行员去世了.又一次引发出关于核武器的大规
模讨论.在一次次的讨论中，你们可曾想过，在遥远的罗布泊，曾经露天爆炸过原子弹？
在美丽的孔雀河－塔里木河流域，曾经无数次的进行过地下核试验？当看到新疆刮起沙尘
暴的新闻后，你们第一个想到的肯定是：新疆那个荒凉的地方……有谁想过，从罗布泊刮
来的沙尘暴，会给世世代代居住在那里的老百姓吹来什么？

Two days ago, the American pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb on Japanese soil passed away. [The pilot, Paul Tibbets, died on 1 November 2007, dating this document to perhaps 3 November.] This once again attracted a large-scale discussion of atomic weapons. In the course of one such discussion, did you perhaps think how, in distant Lop Nor, an atomic bomb was once tested in the open? How, in the beautiful Kongque River – Tarim River Basin, there were once conducted countless underground nuclear tests? After seeing the news of the sand storms in Xinjiang, what you first thought was certainly: Xinjiang, that desolate place… Who thought, the sands that storm from Lop Nor, what will they blow to generations of people who live in that place?

一个个身边的亲友倒下了……问问原因，不是肺癌就是食道癌.新疆是著名的长寿之乡，
祖祖辈辈生活在辽阔农村的百姓，呼吸着新鲜空气，吃着五谷杂粮，周围没有任何现代工
业的痕迹，怎么会一个又一个的患上癌症呢？你们可曾知道，就在罗布泊地区的巴音郭楞
蒙古自治州，进入八九十年代以来，已经成为癌症重灾区.胡总去探望艾滋病人了，温总
去河南艾滋病村了，这是时代的进步，这是party和go-vern-ment的关怀.可是，一个因为
长期受到核辐射而成为癌症重灾区的地区，却为何从来没有被报道过，从来没有人正面回
答这个问题？

Some close friend or relative has fallen… You ask the reason, and, if it’s not lung cancer, it’s esophageal cancer. Xinjiang is a place of famed longevity, and the generations of everyday people that live in the expansive villages, breathing fresh air, eating fresh grain, with no traces of modern industry around them, how does one after another get cancer? As you may know, in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in the area of Lop Nor, since the beginning of the eighties or nineties, it has already become a cancer disaster area. President Hu always goes to visit AIDS patients, Premier Wen goes to AIDS Village in Henan. This is a generational improvement, this is the party and go-vern-ment showing they care. But, a place that has long received nuclear radiation and become a cancer disaster area, but why has it never been reported, why can no one ever answer this question directly?

一次核试验，中国人民从此站起来了，不用受纸老虎的威胁了；可是千千万万个无辜又无
知的新疆人却倒下了，可悲的是，就连他们自己，也并不知道这究竟是为了什么，更何况
他人？

One atomic test. The people of China from this point on stood up. They no longer had to accept the menace of the paper tiger. But countless poor and ignorant Xinjiang people fell. What is lamentable is that, even they themselves did not know why this was, much less anyone else?

新疆的石油运走了，
新疆的天然气运走了，
新疆的棉花运走了，
新疆的钾盐运走了，
新疆的黄金运走了，
新疆的和田玉运走了
……

Xinjiang’s oil was transported away,

Xinjiang’s natural gas was transported away,

Xinjiang’s cotton was transported away,

Xinjiang’s leopoldite was transported away,

Xinjiang’s gold was transported away,

Xinjiang’s Khotan jade was transported away

…

原子弹却降临在新疆了
……

The atomic bomb was indeed dropped in Xinjiang

…

新疆，是祖国版图不可分割的一部分；新疆人，是十三亿中国人的一部分.我们渴望祖国
的富强，我们祝福兄弟省市人民的富足，但，我们也是人，我们也有不高的要求：新疆与
新疆人，能够得到公正与公平的发展机遇，能够从这片土地所赐予我们的宝藏中得到实惠
的利益，能够有一个更为美好的明天，和祖国人民一样，在资源枯竭之后，仍然留有希望
.

Xinjiang, it is an inseparable part of the map of the ancestral country; Xinjiang people, they are part of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. We hope for the fortune and strength of the ancestral country. We congratulate the people of our brother provinces and cities on their wealth. However, we are also people. We also have requirements that are not high: Xinjiang and Xinjiang people, if they are able to receive an equitable and fair opportunity for development, if they can receive some practical benefit from the treasures of ours that are taken from this patch of land, if they can have a better tomorrow, as the people of the ancestral country, and after the resources are exhausted, yet leave behind a little hope.

朋友们，无论你在祖国的何处，当你享受这阳光下的和平的时候，请你想想那些为祖国的
和平而无知的承受着原子辐射的新疆人，对他们说一声：对不起……

Friends, no matter where you are in the ancestral country, when you share in this peace in the sunlight, please think of those Xinjiang people who, unbeknownst, for the peace of the ancestral country received radiation from the atomic bomb, and say to them, I’m sorry…

朋友们，无论你在祖国的何处，当你享受充足的能源供应与高速经济发展带来的实惠的时
候，请想想那些为另一部分人先富起来而默默承受着所有阵痛的新疆人，收起曾经对新疆
人的种种歧视与不屑，收起那些”援助新疆，支援边疆”得了便宜还卖乖的”豪言壮语”，对
他们说一句：谢谢你！

Friends, no matter where you are in the ancestral country, when you share in the practical benefit that comes from the sufficient provision of resources and the high speed of economic development, please think of those Xinjiang people who, unbeknownst, endure pains for another group of people to become wealthy first. To those who have received all kinds of discrimination and disdain against Xinjiang, who have been cheated and bamboozled by the “grandiloquence” of phrases like “assist Xinjiang, support Xinjiang”, say to them, thank you!

我们的要求并不高，一千九百万新疆人民，在无力改变现状与全局时，在仍然需要长时间
为东部的发展做出牺牲时，只需要得到别人真诚的尊重，只想听到一句诚心的：

Our requirements are not very high. 19 000 000 people, at a time when they are powerless to change the present and overall situation, at a time when they still need to sacrifice for a long time for the development of the East, only need to receive others’ sincere respect. They only need to hear one sincere:

新疆人，对不起，谢谢你.

Xinjiang people, I’m sorry, thank you.

This winter’s uncommonly cold temperatures have affected rural production all over Northern Xinjiang. According to the XUAR Forestry Office, the XUAR will have to collect at least 30 million RMB to make up for losses in fruit production and provide for better protection from low temperatures in the future. Losses from the worst winter storms in fifty years, which have affected 54% of Xinjiang’s fruit-growing land, are estimated at 293.6 million RMB. Luckily, the Forestry Office’s goal seems to have been exceeded by 2 million RMB. Fruits and nuts are not the only agricultural products affected by the weather, however. The death of 41.8% of the bees in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture’s apiaries has caused a financial loss of 1.14 million RMB.

So, why is Ürümchi unseasonably warm? Word on the street is, the short-sleeve weather that fell upon the city earlier this month, blamed on global warming, has been contributing to the outbreak of measles, which we have
reported on previously. On the other hand, people have turned off their coal stoves, making Ürümchi’s skies clear and the air positively pleasant. (But don’t leave your windows open all day, or you’ll come home to a dust-encrusted apartment.)

The City of Ürümchi is taking steps to control the rise of prices. Note that, in Xinjiang, a consistent rise in commodity prices over time is not inflation, but a natural effect of market forces. Well, anyway, those market forces are clearly getting out of line, as food commodity prices increased 5.4% in 2007 alone, about as much as they had in the previous three years. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s affected a clear increase in everyday foodstuffs, one bemoaned by Ürümchiliks of all stripes. Example: restaurant menus have been changing all over the city since December. One plate of polo was 5-7 RMB not long ago; now it’s 8-12 RMB. (Suyuq ash prices have increased from 3-4 RMB to a typical 5 RMB. I love suyuq ash.) The city has set aside 20 million RMB, double last year’s amount, for agricultural development, including the building of greenhouses. The city will provide loans to agriculture businesses to increase production. Businesses providing foodstuffs will be temporarily prohibited from altering their prices without first applying to the government for approval. Aid to school cafeterias and low-income families has also been increased. (That’s right, fight those “natural market forces” with cold, hard socialism!) The XUAR’s grain reserves are also meant to be sufficient for the task of maintaining the stability of market prices. The XUAR has also achieved a goal, set in 2003, of storing up 20 000 metric tons of beet sugar in China’s only white crystal sugar storage area. Where is this place, and may I bring a spoon? The stores are meant to help control sugar prices, which have likewise increased and are predicted to rise further.

There is news for domestic and international trade and travel. First, the PRC’s only land port with Tajikistan, Qarasuw, has been approved for use during all weather conditions. Starting this year, it will be open constantly from 1 May to 30 November. Last year, 12 500 tourists, 56 300 metric tons of goods, and 250 million USD of trade passed through the port. Over the past five years, Chinese and foreign financial organizations, including the Asia Development Bank and Development Bank of China, have lent Xinjiang a total of 24.6 billion RMB for road construction and maintenance. This has contributed to the construction of over 60 000 kilometers of new roads, including Southern Xinjiang’s second express highway, Route 314 from Korla to Kucha, currently under construction. Australia’s Arrow Energy has signed a contract with the XUAR Geology and Ore Office to develop coal seams in the South Jungharia and East Jungharia coal fields.

The economic news has also paid some service to an Ürümchi landmark, the Shuangxing Old Goods Market, where I got my bookshelves. Trade at the market has already hit a high point, as at other used goods markets, with sales volume up 30-40% from this time last year. About 20% of customers are students, 20% are unmarried workers living on their own, 10% are families in poor financial circumstances, and 40% are migrant workers. The jump in sales probably has something to do with the natural increase in prices caused by market forces.

Xinjiang, like the rest of China, just never stops building. In the next year, over 20 000 earthquake-resistant housing buildings are planned for construction in Ürümchi. In addition, 9000 current structures are planned for quake-proofing. This may have something to do with the recent earthquakes on the Xinjiang/Tibet border. If you have recently been to Ürümchi, you may have noticed a gigantic pit between Hongshan Park and the Bogeda Hotel, near Edo no Sakura Japanese Restaurant, where the city government used to be until 2004. This is one of two areas adjacent to Hongshan Park slated for redevelopment, and work is finally beginning. High-class apartments on the site are already being sold for 8300-8800 RMB/m². (A typical nice, new apartment in the city goes for around 3500 RMB/ m².) These will be located right next to a greener Hongshan, part of a larger project to connect People’s Park and Hongshan via a “Hetan Green Corridor” along the current Hetan Express Highway. Property values in the area are already rising. It is hoped that filling in the pit will bring some life back to the area, which has been quiet since the government moved. (The Bingtuan headquarters just down the road doesn’t really have the same “community” feeling.) However, it is hoped even more that a great deal of business will go on just outside the gates of the new Hongshan Park.

Housing prices in Ürümchi shot up 25% year-on-year in January, leading an overall 11.3% increase in housing prices across China for the same period, as several sources have reported. (There seems to be some confusion in these articles over what, exactly, “year-on-year” means. It means that housing prices were 25% higher than they were the previous January. It was news to me, too.)

Well, housing prices may be skyrocketing, but seafood prices are dropping as supply outstrips demand. Ürümchi, being famously the city in the world furthest from the ocean, is dependent on regular shipments of live or frozen fish from places like Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangsu. During the recent snowstorms that swept southern China, that supply was cut off, and now the city’s fish markets are seeing a flood of seafood from fishermen eager to make up their losses. Note that this is mostly a problem of supply — overall, seafood sales are up 10% from last year.

Seafood prices aren’t the only ones rising, however. As is known by any native of the XUAR, food prices in Xinjiang have been increasing pretty rapidly since this past autumn. The issue has now received attention from the government, including proclamations from Wen Jiabao. The East, they say, must support the West, and the economies of the cities and the countryside, of the farms and the factories, should not be treated separately. (That is so Marx.) Only slightly more concretely speaking, the central and regional governments are going to take action to keep the rate of the rise of the consumer price index at 4.8%. Representative Äskär Tursun assures the public that the price increase is just a matter of the imbalance of supply and demand, suggesting that “market methods” may be used to control the rise. Legal action may also be taken against those who engage in practices such as hoarding consumer goods (including housing) in order to increase future profits.

The unusually cold winter has affected Xinjiang’s own agriculture, as well. Frost has touched 7.03 million mu (4921 square km) of land, causing direct economic losses of 2.94 billion RMB. In response, a reseller of agricultural chemicals at Ürümchi’s North Train Station’s agricultural goods market, Cui Feng, has donated thirty boxes of anti-freezing products, valued at over 10 000 RMB each, to farmers in the Kashgar area on behalf of a factory.

A new wild variety of lavender, meant to be more economically viable than others, has been discovered in the Tianshan Mountains. It will soon be exploited by a pair of chemical companies. Apparently in celebration, Xinjiang Xiangxiren Lavender, Ltd. will be holding a contest in December. In this contest, 30 selected contestants will test the company’s “spot-removal” skin products. The winner will receive 20 000 RMB worth of Xiangxiren lavender-based cosmetics. I strongly encourage The New Dominion readers to sign up by sending an e-mail to szwlmq@163.com by 31 March.

On to imports and exports. In January 2008, imports into Ürümchi totaled 32.75 million USD, up 75.3%, and exports totaled 305.06 million USD, a 106% increase from the previous month. Imports included mostly agricultural products, raw steel products, electronics, and machines. Exports included clothing, auto parts, machines, and household appliances.

But what about the quality of those products? The Ürümchi Industrial and Commerce Bureau reports that its consumer hotline received 243 500 complaints about products in 2007. A plurality of complaints dealt with cellular phones and clothing, followed closely by food and drink.

Oil news. The Xinjiang oil field company EPC is going to begin construction on China’s largest oil storage unit, to be based in Shanshan County. The facility, which is planned to have a capacity of eight million cubic meters, will store oil from both Xinjiang and from Kazakhstan, which will then be sent eastward on Shanshan-Lanzhou Pipeline.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 25 November 2007: Twenty-one culture officials from four Central Asian countries arrived in Xinjiang representing the “SCO Member States Culture Officials High-level Research Team.” Before coming to China, the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Krygyz who make up the team studied the cultural and economic history of Xinjiang. After arriving the officials conducted research related to cultural and economic spheres, doing things such as holding informal talks with notable cultural figures of Xinjiang (such as tightrope worker Adili Wushouer and dancer Dilnaer), visiting cultural sites such as the Xinjiang Cultural Art Museum and the Great Bazaar in Urumqi, and swapping observations about cultural and economic affairs in their own respective countries with Chinese counterparts.
• 26 November 2007: For the first time, AIDS prevention information will be inserted into the curriculum of migrant worker after-hours schools. Based on statistics on attendance at these special after-hours schools, this information will reach over 200 thousand people. At the opening ceremony, Regional Health Department Vice-Director Zhang Yongzhong underscored the potential effectiveness of this curriculum by recognizing migrant workers, due to the nature of their work and lives in Xinjiang, as one of the primary vectors for the disease. There are over 20 thousand HIV-positive individuals in Xinjiang, ranking the province 4th in the country.
• 27 November 2007: Delegates from the Xinjiang Science and Technology Department presented at the “Arabic Software Technology Exchange and Product Introduction” meeting held at the Egypt Information Technology Institute in Cairo on the 26th. The institute’s president expressed hopes that further technological exchanges could be carried out between China and Egypt. The Xinjiang delegates discussed developing trends in operating system software and office software and presented an Arabic Linux system, Arabic office software, Arabic multi-lingual dictionaries, telecom platforms, and small “knowledge-increasing” games.
• 28 November 2007: Two members of the Regional Standing Committee, Fu Qiang and Bai Zhijie, toured various destinations in Xinjiang to inspect the ongoing implementation of an electronic-classroom program funded by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The program equips educational institutions throughout Xinjiang with computers and other multimedia equipment with the hopes that they will help raise educational standards in Xinjiang. Fu and Bai encouraged the continuing use and care of the equipment at their respective destinations.
• 28 November 2007: A new price-monitoring system has been setup in Urumqi to detect abnormal fluctuations in the prices of daily-use goods and alert the property government organizations should prices rise past a certain threshold within a certain period of time. The wholesale prices of grains, cooking oil, meat, vegetables, eggs, sugar, and other assorted daily use good will be monitored. Should any alarming abnormalities appear, the Urumqi Commercial Affairs Bureau will be alerted within one hour, and in turn will inform the relevant emergency response teams who will then carry out the necessary measures to rectify the situation.
• 28 November 2007: Urumqi’s City Council met recently and decided to invest 3.6 billion yuan in 86 construction projects over the next year, as a part of the “Charge South, Expand North, Extend East, Advance West” campaign. A large portion of these funds will be used to renovate and expand the transportation infrastructure; funds will also be allocated to Urumqi’s railway system, airport, and sewage system.
• 28 November 2007: An intensive training program has begun for Xinjiang athletes as the final winter before the 2008 Olympics approaches. The program will focus on 6 sports which apparently are the strongest candidates in Xinjiang’s athletic community; these sports are boxing, women’s volleyball, men’s archery, men’s middle/long distance running, equestrian, and taekwondo. Training is escalating, and more trainers (including 4 foreigners) are being hired to increase the intensity of the training regimens.
• 28 November 2007: Starting from the 27th of November, the number 4 will no longer appear on the license plates of newly registered vehicles with less than 9 seats. Private car ownership in Xinjiang has followed the national trend and has increased rapidly in the past several years; many owners of these private family cars desire auspicious plate numbers and try to avoid unlucky numbers, especially the number 4, which in Mandarin is pronounced similarly to the word for death, and the combination 47, which sounds similar to the phrase “die from anger (road rage, perhaps?)” and “go and die.” The removal of 4 from possible license plate combinations began in June of this year at the Qaramay Prefecture and quickly spread throughout the region, only now reaching the capital. Authorities made it a point to tell Xinhua that this was not wasting resources to indulge superstition but rather a wise measure to handle a cultural issue (I really can’t tell the difference). Personally, the 9 seats and under distinction puzzles me given the recent spate of large vehicle accidents on Xinjiang highways.
• 28 November 2007: Experts warn that lead poisoning leading to irreversible neurological and developmental damage is a high risk among children in Xinjiang. The article notably framed the effects of lead poisoning in terms of education, warning that children with high blood-lead levels will become inattentive and have eroded long-term memory and reasoning skills, leading to difficulties in the education system. An expert at the Xinjiang Chinese Medicine Institute identified highly-leaded living environments as the culprit, saying that children who like to bite things, such as pencils, toys, crayons, and household objects decorated with leaded paint, are likely to get lead poisoning due to the high lead content of these items. Interestingly, the recommended course of action contained nothing about parental or corporate responsibility, and instead recommended that children be fed lead-detox diets to counter what may be perceived as the inevitable influence of lead in Chinese households.
• 29 November 2007: The Regional Construction Department has teamed up with Disabled and Elderly Committee of the Civil Affairs Department to begin discussing the implementation of the National “100 Disability-Friendly Cities” notice, which in Xinjiang will include the cities of Urumqi, Shihezi, and Qaramay. Newly roads, apartments, tenements, and dormitories must comply with disability standards; at least 50% of public places such as theaters, schools, libraries, and museums are to be renovated to fulfill disability standards; and at least 30% of the commercial centers in these cities, like shopping malls, will also be required to meet disability standards. Construction for the disabled-friendly project will begin in 2008; a “midterm checkup” to check the project’s progress will be held on 2010.
• 29 November 2007: Three consecutive days of high levels of pollution in Urumqi, from the 26th to the 28th, have prompted the city’s Environmental Protection Department to issue a “blue” air pollution warning for the first time. The blue warning is issued after a “level-three” pollution index is maintained for three consecutive days, while the yellow warning is issued for three consecutive days of “level-four” pollution and the red warning is saved for two consecutive days of level-five pollution. The main cause of the high pollution currently plaguing Urumqi is the arrival of cold weather which has triggered an expected spike in heat-supplying measures which naturally brings about a corresponding rise in air pollution.
• 29 November 2007: The 47th meeting of the 10th Regional People’s Government standing committee began on the afternoon of the 28th. The four topics of discussion were “Regional Emergency Management Work Regulations,” the draft of “Regional Implementation of Botanical Epidemic Ordinances,” the draft proposal of “Regional Cotton Fire Safety and Management Methods,” and the draft of “Regional Atmospheric Damage Early-Warning Signal Distribution and Desemination Methods.”
• 29 November 2007: XUAR Chairman Ismail Tiliwaldi underscored the role the oil and natural gas industry plays in Xinjiang’s economic landscape while inspecting the Northwest Oil Fields branch of Sinopec. Tiliwaldi acknowledged the contribution oil and gas has given to the development of Xinjiang, dubbing them the “mainstay” and the “army” of Xinjiang’s continuing economic growth (perhaps the XPCC was slighted at such an analogy? Who knows.). Tiliwaldi also claimed that in order to broaden this socioeconomic contribution, the oil companies must quicken the pace of oil and gas exploration and exploitation.
• 29 November 2007: The Drug Prohibition Task Force of the Xinjiang PSB and the Guangzhou PSB busted a heroin-smuggling ring in Guangzhou on the 21st, arresting 5 individuals, including one Pakistani citizen, and confiscating 4380 pounds of heroin. This drug smuggling operation had trafficked and sold “Gold Crescent Moon” drugs in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan, Xinjiang, and other locations under the guise of a legitimate business. Xinjiang’s continuing development of international trade with neighboring countries played a pivotal role in providing the supply lines that maintained the drug trafficking ring.
• 30 November 2007: The Regional AIDS Prevention Committee Office announced that this year 1043 AIDS patients have received free medical treatment as a part of growing regional efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic in Xinjiang. Also as a part of this effort, 29 national-level and 38 regional-level “monitoring stations” have been constructed, offering free AIDS diagnostic tests. The free AIDS treatment program began two years ago and not only increased availability of screening and treatment but also trained 1500 doctors and 1800 nurses to supply manpower to the effort.
• 30 November 2007: In what can only be called “a crippling blow to the progress of science worldwide,” the Regional Education Office has decided to cancel next year’s science competitions at the elementary school level. The official reasoning was that between schoolwork responsibilities and the cram classes （补习班）that most elementary school students must shoulder, the science competition represents an undue source of stress for the already busy students. Most parents and teachers expressed approval of the decision, but manufacturers of 3-panel cardboard displays have yet to chime in with their view on the decision.
• 30 November 2007: Starting from next semester, all rural students attending compulsory education will receive free textbooks and will not be required to pay school-related incidentals. The “two-free” policy began and autumn 2003 and, according to statistics, has resulted in a notable, positive impact on middle and elementary school student retention rates in agricultural and pastoral regions across Xinjiang.
• 1 December 2007: On November 30 Urumqi Environmental Protection Bureau announced that the National Environmental Protection Bureau has been selected as a pilot city for the National Motor Vehicle Pollution Management project. Because of Urumqi’s unique geographical position and growing car ownership, vehicle emissions have become a large enough problem for intervention on the national level. Around 20 million yuan of capital, along with the support of the central government, will be used to construct a high-level emissions testing center in Urumqi that will tag vehicles with unacceptably high emissions with yellow license plates, carrying out the first step of the pilot program, which is to identify the vehicles that should fall under closer scrutiny and management.
• 1 December 2007: The fishing industries of the most landlocked region of the world is expected to produce 880 thousand tons of products by the end of the year, and increase of 6% since last year. Xinjiang has a thriving “famous brands” industry that consists of selling products for their uniqueness to the region; Korla’s famous pears, Turpan’s famous grapes, and Hami’s famous melons are but three examples. The article states that the growth of the fishing industry can be partially attributed to successful campaigns to market fishing products as a regional specialty (特色). Along side pears, grapes, and melons, we may also expect to see “Sayram Lake White Salmon,” “Bayingholin Perch,” “Yili Sturgeon,” and other fine “famous brands” in stores throughout China.
• 1 December 2007: The Flying Tigers continue their rise to the top, defeating the Zhejiang Lions (103-88) on the 25th, the Zhejiang Wind Stallions (85-71) on the 28th, and the Yunnan Bulls (121-11) on the 30th. The Flying Tigers have risen to second place in the league after the Guangdong Tigers, previously a first place contender, suffered two losses. Now the Flying Tigers are competing only with the Jiangsu Dragons for the top position, both teams having a record of 13 victories to 2 losses.

Other News

• 29 November 2007: An article published by China.org.cn celebrates apparently successful efforts by the Tarim Oilfield Company, the Institute of Ecology and Geology, and the XPCC to combat and even reverse desertification in Xinjiang by planting new forests. Allegedly, a “green belt” in the Taklamakan has been expanding since 1994 when the Tarim Oilfield Company started planting trees adapted to the desert climate, while on the other side of the Tianshan , the XPCC has expanded sacsaoul forest coverage in the Gurbantunggut Desert to 15 million mu, starting an ecological chain reaction that results in fewer sandstorms, more precipitation, and greater plant growth.
• 30 November 2007: The Los Angeles Times ran a bare-bones-basics guide to traveling through Xinjiang on a motorcycle. The guide essentially summarizes conditions in Xinjiang categorized by topics relevant to motorcyclists: road conditions, gasoline, laws, etc. If your interested is piqued, be sure to check out the more personalized and detailed account of Michael Manning’s trans-Taklamakan adventure here.

Blogs

• 26 November 2007 and 30 November 2007: Michael Manning discusses teaching English in Xinjiang in a 26 November post, then shares some Xinjiang-related clips of a National Geographic Silk Road Documentary in a 30 November post.