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.

Last week, we reported on a joint venture by Australia’s Arrow Energy and the XUAR regional government with the aim of opening up and exploiting coal seams in northern Xinjiang (Jungharia), looking especially to the abstraction of “coal bed methane”. The company has reported more details
of the coal-mining venture, reportedly taken up with the Ürümchi Geological Exploration and Development Company of the Xinjiang Geological Survey. Now the same company is planning to begin work on exploiting the PRC’s largest condensate gasfield, the Dina-II field, located in the Tarim Basin. The gas will go straight to Shanghai through the West-East Pipeline (WEP). China National Petroleum is building the site itself, which is planned to open in June 2009. Now, it seems, a Korean company, ecoeye, wants to get in on the action. The company approached the XUAR Investment and Development Office with overtures towards cooperation on 21 March. ecoeye has already invested in coal fields in Qäshqär and in Henan Province. (From this last article, one gets a sense that ecoeye is dedicated to safety, though this is not directly stated. Indeed, the author implies that, although 70-80% of coal mine accidents in the PRC are from coal gas explosions, coal gas is a low-pollutant energy source, so it’s all cool.)

It’s tax time in Xinjiang. Statistics show that the average small business in Ürümchi pays 325 RMB of National Tax every month, an average that increases to 375 RMB in Tianshan District and gets as low as 151 RMB elsewhere. The Ürümchi City National Tax Office announced on 26 March the creation of a computerized system for calculating individual household and business tax quotas, to be completed by early May. It will be activated on 1 July.

The XUAR and Ürümchi governments still seem unable to keep a hold on those prices and their rapid increase under the influence of perfectly natural market forces. There has actually been an agreement formed between the Sugar Manufacturing Industry Working Committee and sugar beet farmers nationally – Xinjiang is #4 for sugar beet farming in the PRC – to increase the price of sugar beets by 20% to 300 RMB/metric ton. Sugar prices fell in the autumn, but now, in order to keep the area of sugar beet cultivation land steady, the government has intervened in the price of beets, taking advantage of its stores of sugar in Xinjiang. Since 29 January, the City of Ürümchi has also been monitoring the pricing practices of seven major companies operating in the city, tracking the prices of six different products. The investigation found inconsistencies in bookkeeping which are meant to have contributed to the overall trend towards inflation. Still, it seems like the government is trying to trivialize the global problem of inflation by passing it off as a temporary, locally-based problem caused by a few major corporations. Supposedly, some of the inconsistencies in their accounting were related to cooking oil. Perhaps that’s why the price of cooking oil is meant to be dropping?

In this week’s international trade news: foreign trade with the XUAR increased75.7% from January to February. This was most likely a result of land routes being opened to motor travel. However, on 20 March, Kazakhstan announced that it is implementing a temporary ban on the importation of flowers from the PRC, most of which would flow through Xinjiang, owing to the discovery of parasites (western flower thrips) on Chinese plants.

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

• 30 December 2007: Authors celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Xinjiang Writers’ Association on the 27th of December. The Association started in 1957 with only 50 members; today, 2000 authors are members.
• 31 December 2007: Three climatologists wrote a treatise on global warming’s effects on China’s Northwest for the Economic Consultation Newspaper. The summary is as follows: “As a result of global warming, our country’s Northwestern region is currently undergoing a transformation from a warm, dry climate to a warm, wet climate, and so in the future this arid area may become relatively moist. Experts believe climatic transformation will have a major practical and strategic impact on the local ecology, on regional economic development, and on other relevant factors. The Northwestern region ought to actively carry out responsive measures to exploit changing ecological resources, simultaneously taking advantage of the situation yet preventing and avoiding harmful side effects, thus bringing about better and faster economic and social development.” Seems to me that they’re saying “if global warming makes the Taklamakan Desert into a thriving oasis… more power to it!” Though I admit I haven’t read the full text, which is available through the above link.
• 31 December 2007:Regional Social Sciences Union held its annual meeting in Urumqi on the morning of the 29th. 200 scientists attended, revealing research results from 2007 and exchanging academic information.
• 31 December 2007: The Regional People’s Inspection Agency’s Anti-Corruption Bureau announced that this year special investigation operations lead to the conviction of 13 individuals working in the field of health care, including the Regional Health Department Financial Regulations Bureau Chief Chen Jianguo (sentenced to 10 years imprisonment) and the former president of Kashgar Prefecture People’s Hospital Zhu Zhong (sentenced to 14 years).
• 31 December 2007: The Party Secretary of Aletai Prefecture divulged on the 29th that the regional government has already approve the upgrade of Beitun (Beitun in Google Earth) to full city status and will also invest 400 million yuan to help bring about this status change. Beitun, which is the headquarters of the 10th Division of the XPCC, previously only held township status. Intensive urban planning projects aimed at remodeling Beitun began on April of 2007 and was carried out by both Chinese and British engineers.
• 31 December 2007: Qadir Qurban, a Uyghur computer specialist at the Changji police department, has become a candidate for Olympic torchbearer. Qurban was recommended by the Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture for his efforts in bringing about stability via the implementation of the latest crime fighting theories and technologies. As the torchbearer selection process continues to unfold, Qurban works out daily and continues to pour efforts into his work, knowing that at the very least he can contribute by helping quash any preemptive efforts to hamper the Olympics through his technological work.
• 1 January 2008: This New Years a number of shopping centers passed out discount cards which triggered an upsurge of “panic buying,” leading a Xinhua writer to conclude that holiday frenzy shopping at extremely crowded shopping centers has turned to a new consumerist tradition in Urumqi.
• 1 January 2008: Surveys conducted and funded by the China Petroleum Tarim Oilfields Company and China Petroleum Northwest Oilfields Company have confirmed 974.1 billion cubic meters of proven natural gas deposits in Aksu Prefecture, enough to fill energy quotas for 200 million residents.
• 2 January 2008: On the morning of the 2nd, Urumqi International Airport had to close for the second time within a month due to heavy fog. Several hundred passengers were affected by the delays.
• 3 January 2008: The Central Propaganda Ministry, the National Broadcasting Headquarters, the Regional Party Committee and the Regional Government in cooperation with local industries are carrying out the “TVs for Ten Thousand Homes” project, which will provide 273 thousand 53 cm color TVs to low-income, rural households across Xinjiang. Akto County (a place known for being a hotbed of resistance) resident and program beneficiary Maimaiti Wushou’er gushed, “I didn’t expect that during Qurban festival I’d be sitting on my kang watching television, I must thank the party and the government for their care and consideration. Now I’ll definitely study with enthusiasm party policies, science, and cultural knowledge, and soon I’ll be able to cast off this poverty.” Imagine that! Maybe America can learn a thing or too from China: televisions, not bombs.
• 3 January 2008: Full-scale construction work on the Kashgar-Khotan railroad will begin this year. Surveying investigations and planning for this new railroad was conducted in 2007; now, the projects 6.5 billion yuan worth of construction investments will be directed towards the actual implementation of a new 775 kilometer railroad connecting Kashgar city with Minfeng in Khotan prefecture. The railroad is expected to begin operation in 2010.
• 4 January 2008: The city of Urumqi recently began the first “National Causes of Pollution Survey which will attempt to clarify the data available on pollutant producers in Urumqi by investigating the amount of pollutants, their sources, the directions by which they spread, their regional distribution, the current condition of pollution prevention systems, and expenses being put into pollution management. The data produced by the survey will form the foundation for upcoming pollution management reform.
• 4 January 2008: In 2007 Xinjiang companies extracted 26.4 million tons of crude oil and 21.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas, making Xinjiang the number 1 gas and oil producer in the country. According to current estimates, 20.8 billion tons of crude oil and 10.8 trillion cubic meters of gas are yet to be exploited.
• 5 January 2008: Nur Bekri, acting chairman of the XUAR, made an appearance at the regional Minority Elementary and Middle School Bilingual Training Evaluation and Feedback Meeting. Bekri, who as a high-ranking Uyghur member of both the regional government and the regional party probably underwent bilingual education himself, emphasized the importance of the continuing growth of bilingual education and ensured continuing support on behalf of the government for the program.
• 5 January 2008: The 36th meeting of the 10th Regional People’s Congress Standing Committee occurred on the morning of the 3rd. The primary topic of hand was preparations for transition to the 11th Regional People’s Congress, whose first meeting is rapidly approaching.
• 5 January 2008:As part of the “Fewer Children, Quicker Prosperity” project of the regional Population and Family Planning Committee, over 50 thousand households were each awarded 3000 yuan for voluntary renouncing their right to have a 3rd child. Left unstated in the article is the fact that minorities in rural jurisdictions are permitted to have 3 children per household, so the beneficiaries of this program are probably all non-Han.
• 5 January 2008: Starting from the 6th, the China Southern Airlines route between Urumqi and Dushanbe, Tajikistan will be transformed from a chartered flight to a regularly scheduled and operating flight. The route opened in 2004 but was chartered and therefore prices were often high and flights operated on an erratic schedule. After the 6th, both prices and times for the route are expected to stabilize.
• 5 January 2008: Thanks to rapidly increasing trade between China and Central Asian nations, the export volume of Alashankou, (Alashankou in Google Earth) a trade center located on the border with Kazakhstan on Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, surpassed 50 million tons before the close of 2007, officially making it the busiest land-based railroad “port” in the nation.

Other

• 2 January 2007: David Challenger with CNN travel writes a standard-fare travelogue of his trip to Turpan. Though most of the writing is typical first impression descriptions many Xinjiang enthusiasts and scholars have long moved past – “The people were intriguing; Chinese were evident, and of course Uighurs, who looked like a cross between Mongols and Afghanis” – it is nonetheless interesting to see Xinjiang make a blip on a top-level American news network.
• 3 January 2007: Fresh produce industry website Fresh Plaza writes on the growing jujube industry in Gansu in Xinjiang. The jujube industry is expected to expand to over 3 million acres, which will make it the largest jujube base in China.
• 4 January 2007: China View runs aEnglish translation of the Xinhua article above regarding Xinjiang becoming the nation’s top oil/gas producer.
• 4 January 2007: Rocky Mountain News reporter David O. Williams makes some observations about the ski industry’s gradual shift of focus from the United States to Asia. With the skiing and snowboarding industry on the decline in the US, many American ski moguls are turning Asia’s vast untapped markets and prime skiing mountains. Ping Tian resorts near Urumqi are examined as a case study in this move; currently Ping Tian has many Americans on their team to help develop the resort into a top notch resort, including ski trainers who are passing on their skills to (former) Kazakh herdsmen.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 24 December 2007: Over 100 thousand farmers and herders in remote regions have received benefits from the “Electricity for Every Household Project” and are now able to bid farewell to oil lamps and wood-burning heating. The “Electricity for Every Household Project” was started jointly by the XUAR People’s Government and the National Power Network Company in 2006. Since its inauguration, the project has been implemented far ahead of schedule, with a current total of 336 million yuan having been invested in the construction of power converters and power lines necessary to provide electricity to remote regions.
• 25 December 2007: A certain Mr. Xu was sentenced to two years in prison on December 24th for attempting to extort the Urumqi Carrefour for 50 thousand yuan two months previously. On the 5th of September, Xu called the Carrefour to tell them to deposit 50 thousand yuan in a designated bank account without informing the police, otherwise he would detonate a bomb he had planted in the storage room via remote control. The Carrefour administration immediately evacuated the store and informed the authorities, causing a swarm of armed police and explosives specialists to descend on the abandoned supermarket. No explosives were found, and detectives of the Urumqi police department arrested Xu at an Internet bar the next day.
• 25 December 2007: From January to the end of November, Xinjiang saw 400 thousand foreign tourists and received 148 million American dollars worth of tourism revenue. At 34%, Russians constitute the largest portion of foreign tourist.
• 25 December 2007: The economic efficiency of state-owned enterprise increased by a substantial margin from January to November of this year. Total sales revenues for SOEs reached 25.3 billion yuan, a 20.1% increase since last year. The metal, coal, chemical engineering, foodstuffs, textiles, and trade industries saw the most significant improvements.
• 25 December 2007: From the beginning of this year to the 24th ofDecember the Qaramay oilfields produced a total of 11.5 million tons of crue oil. This years total is higher than last year, and thus adds the 27th year to a continual changing of increasing oil output.
• 26 December 2007: The Xinjiang software company Sarka has developed a software that can recognize Uyghur, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz text from image files and convert them into text. With this software, an individual can scan documents written in these languages or take photographs of texts and then convert them into editable text files. The program was the product of a join effort between the company, the Information Science and Engineering Institute of Xinjiang University, and Qinghua University’s Electrical Engineering Department.
• 26 December 2007: The Disaster Relief Office of the regional Civil Affairs Department has allocated 42 million kuai to aid residents stricken by natural calamities to make it through the winter. This winter a large number of Xinjiang residents are affected by natural disasters such as abnormally high snowfall, torrential rain, hailstorms, floods, landslides, mudslides, strong winds, droughts, and low temperature conditions. The disaster relief aid will be used to provide affected residents with food rations, clothes, and coal.
• 26 December 2007: By 2008, all agricultural and pastoral regions in Xinjiang will be covered by the New Model
  Cooperative Medical Treatment system. In acknowledgment of this complete coverage, the central and regional governments have decided to increase financial support for the program, which involves both financial subsidies to support those with illnesses and providing special training to residents so that emergencies and illnesses can be treated locally.
• 26 December 2007: Three Xinjiang gold mining companies will receive a total of 7.6 million yuan of funding from the national government, to be used for gold exploration and for environmental protection. Xinjiang’s gold mining industry has been receiving governmental funding since 2004, and this year’s addition pins the government’s total investment in the regional mining industry to 15.7 million yuan. Xinjiang is considered one of China’s most important gold industry bases; this year’s gold production statistics put Xinjiang at 8th place in China’s national gold mining industry.
• 26 December 2007: Urumqi International Airport was closed for the first time this winter due to heavy snowfall on the 26th from 11am to 6pm.
• 27 December 2007: In order to improve business relations between the XPCC and its clients and to promote even faster and better economic development through the Bingtuan’s myriad industries, Huaxia Bank has signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with Bingtuan officials which will grant XPCC controlled industries and XPCC work unit employees greater and smoother access to the bank’s resources, including loans, account management, and other financial services.
• 28 December 2007: This year the total value of Xinjiang foreign trade was substantially hire than the national average. The total value of imports and exports from January to November of this year reached 12.3 billion American dollars, a 50% increase compared with the same period last year and a 26.5 percentage points higher than the national average.
• 28 December 2007: The safe landing of a China Southern Airlines Boeing 757 airliner marked the official opening of Korla’s new airport. The construction of a new, larger airport to replace Korla’s previous one was a national level project aimed at consolidating Korla’s role as a hub between Northern and Southern Xinjiang and between Xinjiang and the rest of the country. A total of 630.3 million yuan was invested in the project.
• 28 December 2007: The XPCC Health Department announced plans to begin construction next year of comprehensive health archive which within three years will contain the basic medical information and statistics of all 2.58 million members of the XPCC. Upon completion of this medical archive, XPCC health services will be able to provide quicker outpatient services, develop more efficient immunization plans, improve health education, better monitor epidemic and contagious diseases, and give better recover and rehabilitation programs to XPCC patients.
• 29 December 2007: This year 1025 kilometers of highways were opened for use, an increase of about 136% compared to high construction over the previous five years. Before the 1990s, Xinjiang didn’t have even one kilometer of highway, now, the XUAR Transportation Department has managed to connect Urumqi with every prefecture and every prefecture-level capital with all of its internal counties. In all there are 145 thousand kilometers of highway in Xinjiang.
• 29 December 2007: Masses of people from Kuche, Xinhe, Baicheng, and as far away as Korla saw a massive fireball in the sky on the night of the 27th. At around 8:50PM, Beijing time, witnesses saw an object in the sky so bright that in some places it seemed like daylight. One witness described the object as a “red-hot chunk of iron” that left a bright trail in the sky similar to the contrails of an airplane. The object was visible for about 10 seconds, then, 5 seconds after the fireball disappeared witnesses report hearing a loud boom. Police from the Xinhe PSB dispatched two expeditions to find any trace of the object but none was found. Meteorite? Likely. Alien invaders? Well, let’s just say if I were an alien overlord I’d definitely choose Xinjiang as a nice, remote, resource-rich, sparsely populated, spacious base of operations to begin my nefarious conquest. I suppose time will tell.
• 29 December 2007: From the beginning of its operation to the 25th of this month, the China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline has transported 4.7 million tons of oil, worth 2.4 billion American dollars.
• 29 December 2007: The 20th and final meeting of the 9th Regional People’s Political Consultative Conference ended on the afternoon of the 28th. The primary goal of the meeting was to elect delegates for the 10th Regional People’s Political Consultative Conference, whose first meeting will be held on the 13th of next year. The members of the 10th RPPCC can be found here.

Other News

•  26 December 2007: The People’s Daily Online provides some English language coverage on the recent closure of Urumqi airport.
• 26 December 2007: China View provides a picture gallery to celebrate the completion of the renovation of Kashgar’s old town.
• 28 December 2007: China Daily runs an article on Pimo, a small town on the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert and home to some miraculous desert reclamation efforts.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 9 December 2007: Xinjiang will hopefully have two new national-level geographical parks in the near future. Tuomuer Canyon in Wensu County and Tianshan Canyon in Kuche County, both of Aksu prefecture, recently were submitted to the National Resources Department as potential National Park Candidates. Representatives from the NRD investigated both sites at the end of October and a ruling on the status of the two parks is expected to be announced shortly.

• 9 December 2007: Over 16 million yuan will be invested for the protection and preservation of the Silk Road’s oldest military installation, the Keziergaha Watchtower, as well as nearby grottoes containing Buddhist frescoes. The Keziergaha Watchtower (whose name is ancient Turkic for “Red Checkpoint”) was built sometime during the Han Dynasty and was part of a network of towers that stretched all the way to Changan. The nearby Buddhist grottoes were constructed sometime in the 5th century. The investment will go into protection projects such as a workstation, weather monitoring equipment, and restoration work.

• 10 December 2007: Epic rescue operations have been carried out to rescue a crippled camel discovered by a research expedition in the Lop Nur Wild Camel Reserve on the 1st of December. After tracking the injured camel for several days, food, salt, and antibiotics were brought out to the camel on the 7th; on the 8th, a crew ventured into the wild and with the help of tranquilizers this crew managed to load the camel into a truck, by which it was brought to a veterinary clinic in Ruoqiang. Treatment was given to the wild camel in Ruoqiang until arrangements were made to transport the camel to the Tianshan Wildlife Reserve center for more extensive treatment.

• 11 December 2007: According to the National Statistics Bureau’s Xinjiang Investigation Team, the consumer price index rose 9.7% over the month of November. Prices for consumer goods continue rising.

• 11 December 2007: During a highway building project, construction workers unearthed a cemetery whose contents include 2400 year old wheat stalks that still maintain a golden hue. The wheat is projected to have been buried sometime around the Warring States period or the Qin dynasty, and strongly imply that at the time the Turpan basin had a highly developed wheat agricultural base.

• 11 December 2007: Two days of continuous fog caused the delay or cancellation of over 200 flights at Urumqi International Airport. The fog reduced visibility to 200 meters, below acceptable operating standards. The fog departed on the 10th and normal operations were reinstated at around 12:30.

• 12 December 2007: The regional output value of the XUAR increased 12% over the last year, which is a new high when compared to the economic performance of the last 12 years. Following this general economic growth, average yearly disposable income for residents of cities and townships surpassed the 10 thousand yuan benchmark and monthly income for rural areas surpassed 3000 yuan. An employee of the regional statistics bureau warned that although industries are improving across the board and incomes are rising, Xinjiang still faces rising prices and widespread sanitation problems in the food production industry.

• 12 December 2007: The National Power Grid Corporation has invested 2.1 billion yuan into the construction of power converting stations and coal mines in the eastern part of the Junggar Basin, where an estimated 370 billion tons of coal await extraction. Xinjiang is playing an increasingly important role in China’s energy infrastructure as the demand for more energy resources rises with China’s prospering economy.

• 12 December 2007: This year, 200 thousand high school graduates did not continue on to higher education. The regional government intends to see the silver lining of this situation by mobilizing massive integrated vocational education programs to provide high school graduates with occupational skills useful to Xinjiang’s burgeoning industries.

• 12 December 2007: Officers with the Railway Police recently shutdown a counterfeit train ticket operation in Urumqi. A railway worker discovered a passenger with a fake ticket on the 8th, which triggered investigations. Soon after, two more passengers were found with fake tickets and after examination, all three tickets were judged as coming from the same source. Further investigations lead police to Urumqi’s Midong New Neighborhood, where two suspects were arrested and over 20 thousand yuan worth of fake tickets were confiscated.

• 13 December 2007: In an ironic twist to the well-known bystander effect, two brave gentlemen did respond to the pleas of help coming from a damsel being mugged by two thugs… but after the two thugs were subdued and brought to the local police station, the victim was nowhere to be found, this providing no legal basis whatsoever to set up a case against the two muggers, especially after the muggers began making counter-accusations against the two vigilantes, saying they were the innocent, assaulted victims. After hearing calls for help while walking back to his unit, PLA soldier Nueraili dashed to the rescue and took down two robbers who were in the process of chasing a woman down the street. Eventually the three of them fell to the ground in a scuffle, whereupon the victim and another woman started shouting for someone to help the outnumbered Nueraili. Another upstanding citizen, Zhang Junxin, joined the fray and eventually the two heroes were able to overcome the criminals and bring them to the local police station. Unfortunately, since the two witnesses left, there was no way for officers to establish a criminal case and investigation, and now Nueraili and Zhang Junxin are facing accusations of assault by the foiled criminals. In order to “carry out justice,” the police stations have begun a publicity campaign on behalf of the two vigilantes, urging the two witnesses to come forward to resolve the case.

• 13 December 2007: Since its inauguration in 2005, the “Sunshine Project” has provided around 6000 farmers and herders with occupational skills. As part of the ongoing effort to provide rural residents with the skills necessary to make a decent living in modernizing Xinjiang, the “Sunshine Project” offers vocational training in a number of fields, including electric work, computers, culinary arts, weaving, farm equipment repair, driving, and tourism service.

• 13 December 2007: The regional Health Department has released statistics regarding epidemic diseases in Xinjiang for the month of November. There are currently 13976 cases of “Type B” diseases in Xinjiang, an increase of 19.89% when compared to the same time period last year. Type B diseases include hepatitis A, measles, whooping cough, and mumps. Experts ascribe last month’s increase to both the arrival of these diseases’ “high season” and a lack of adequate sanitary conditions in schools and neighborhoods.

• 13 December 2007: The fifth meeting of the seventh regional party committee was held in Urumqi on the 11th and the 12th, with Regional Party Secretary Wang Lequan and Regional Chairman Ismail Tiliwaldi making summarizing statements. The rhetorical focus of the meeting was the start of a “new history” for Xinjiang, a time of unprecedented opportunities whose advantages should be reaped to the fullest extent.

• 13 December 2007: Total cotton production for Xinjiang, China’s largest cotton base, is expected to reach 2.7 million tons by the end of the year, setting yet another annual record.

• 13 December 2007: A comprehensive 20-year plan for the restoration and renovation of the Tomb of Abakh Khoja (or the Tomb of the Fragrant Concubine) and the Id Kah mosque has been submitted to the local government for examination and approval. The first phase of this long term plan consists of reinforcing the foundations of both structures and implementing fire prevention and earthquake-resistant engineering projects on the buildings and the surrounding neighborhoods. One sentence in the Xinhua article also notes that structures near these cultural sites deemed “detrimental” to their preservation will be demolished as a part of this plan.

• 13 December 2007: The Flying Tigers are maintaining their historical winning streak now that they have played every team once and are now facing CBA opponents for the second time in the season. The Flying Tigers defeated Shaanxi, Jilin, and Liaoning once more in three away games, then defeated Shandong at home on the 9th. Tension mounted on the days leading up to the Flying Tigers’ epic showdown with their season rival, the Jiangsu Dragons, who defeated the Flying Tigers in Jiangsu on the 7th of November. This time, however, the Flying Tigers won, 108-90, bestowing the nickname of “Devil Court” on their Urumqi stadium, seeing that they have yet to see a loss on their home turf.

• 14 December 2007: The second stage of the China-Kazakhstan pipeline has officially begun. The second stage is expected to reach completion on 1 October 2009 and will stretch from Kenjiyake to Kumkol, which both are located within Kazakhstan. Eventually the pipeline will reach the port of Alashankou on the Chinese side of the Kazakh-Chinese border, where crude oil can be delivered to China’s internal pipeline system. Upon completion, this pipeline is expected to deliver 20 million tons annually from the Caspian Sea to the PRC.
• 14 December 2007: The fifth XPCC Party Committee held its 10th meeting on the 13th, during which the XPCC secretary Nie Weiguo outlined the goals of the XPCC for the upcoming years. The XPCC’s lofty goals include studying and implementing the spirit of the 17th National People’s Congress, intensifying the opening and reform policies, continue generating new systems and ideas to implement XPCC policies, accelerate economic structural adjustments, build up the “three agricultural bases” and the “main six industries,” push forward the “new industrialization,” modernize agriculture and continue urbanization so as to improve lives and promote social harmony, and to make the XPCC a model unit in constructing an affluent society in China’s northwest. Piece of cake.
• 14 December 2007: The 2007-2008 Xinjiang Economic and Social Situation Analysis and Forecast Bluebook has been released by the Xinjiang Social Sciences Institute. The Bluebook predicts that over the following year, Xinjiang’s GDP will increase by 11.65%, and that consumer prices will increase by 4%, particularly in the upcoming 9 months where increases will be solidly above the national average. Foodstuffs are expected to see a particularly high rise of 9.1%. The combined GDP of the Urumqi-Changji area will account for 1/3 of Xinjiang’s total GDP and generate over 40% of the region’s fiscal revenue, solidly pinning it as the region’s economic center and powerhouse. The Bluebook also forecasts detrimental imbalances in water resource management, Xinjiang’s transportation system, and comparative economic development between North and South Xinjiang, as well as an increase in regional income disparities.
• 14 December 2007: XUAR Chairman Ismail Tiliwaldi announced that this year’s total crude oil production is expected to hit 26 million tons, a 5.5% increase compared with last year’s crude oil production. Xinjiang thus remains the top oil producer in China for the 18th consecutive year.
• 15 December 2007: Starting from next year, Turpan’s Astana tombs will have a comprehensive “early warning system” to prevent grave robbers from looting the site. The Regional Cultural Artificats Protection Committee invested 4.85 million yuan for the Astana Tomb Security Program, which officially began construction work in the past few days. The system is expected to be completed by April 2008 and will include intruder detection systems, closed circuit TV monitoring systems, and an accompanying control center. The article sets aside a special paragraph to point out the precedent of tomb pillaging set by European and Japanese explorers in the 19th century.

Other News

• 10 December 2007: Dominic Barton at the Financial Times contends that the infrastructure for a new industrial Silk Road has been laid over the past several years; Xinjiang of course represents one of this new trade route’s most important hubs.
• 10 December 2007: China View runs an English language version of the Xinhua article describing delays at the Urumqi airport caused by heavy fog.

Blogs

• 14 December 2007: Michael discusses some statistics he found regarding Chinese name length and Xinjiang.
• 15 December 2007: The KSA Daily makes some observations about the paucity of literature on the Uyghur language, which ironically makes the pool of authors quite accessible to those in Xinjiang.

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.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 4 November 2007 : In the past three quarters, the per capita income of farmers and herdsmen have increased by 343 yuan.
• 4 November 2007 : The China Edition of Forbes magazine has published its annual top 400 billionaire list which includes 6 individuals from Xinjiang. Brothers Zhang Jiefu and Zhang Yanfu are new on the list and jointly occupy position 400 through their oil processing and refining industries. Kong Guangxi (real estate, construction materials) has risen 30 places this year to position 61, Mi Enhua (construction materials, trade, wholesale) has dropped to position 248, Chen Zhifeng (exports, real estate, tourism) has inched up to position 332, and Zheng Daqing (real estate, cell phones, minerals) now occupies position 360.
• 5 November 2007: Xinjiang’s Animal Husbandry Office has announced that 10 million yuan of government funds has been allocated to help make China’s most Muslim province become the Northwest’s Pig Industry Base within 10 years. Places slated to receive initial funds for the new pig breeding infrastructure include the eastern part of Changji Prefecture, the northern part of the Hami Region, the Tianshan Northern Foothills region, the Yili valley, the Ta’e basin, the Yanqi basin, Korla, Aksu, and Kashgar, etc. (the etc. was in the original article, I kid not)
• 5 November 2007: To better ensure food quality and to better monitor medicine production, 9 new Food and Drug Administration Bureaus have been established in 9 counties: Yumin, Qinghe, Wenquan, Mulei, Urumqi’s Toutun River district, Bohu, Wuqia, Khotan, and Qaramay.
• 5 November 2007: In accordance with the 11th 5-year plan, Xinjiang’s Office of Personnel Training has begun to implement a program to upgrade the knowledge and skills of 12,000 technological experts in the fields of petrochemistry, coal refining, hydroelectric power, cotton processing, food processing, environmental protection, orchard forestry, and tourism.
• 5 November 2007: Compared with the same period of time last year, the number of AIDS infections in Xinjiang is down by almost four tenths.
• 5 November 2007: A construction project undertaken by Xinjiang’s Transportation Office to lower the number of collisions with Przewalski’s horses on Xinjiang’s roads has been completed. In the past two months there have been 5 fatal accidents involving Przewalski’s horses, and in response the Transportation Office set up several signs, warnings, prohibited areas, decreased speed zones, and solar-powered warning lights.
• 6 November 2007: The State Council’s AIDS Prevention Working Committee has sent a joint working group to conduct survey research in Xinjiang and to evaluate current AIDS epidemic preventive efforts underway in the region.
• 6 November 2007: Controversy emerges over the expelling of a naughty 8 year old student from an Urumqi school. Although an alliance of school officials, teachers, and concerned parents have made the case that the child is intractable beyond resolution, a number of interested parties have also criticzed the moves as overly harsh for a child of his age. Currently, a compromise solution has been put forward of giving the child’s parents “a little more time” to help the child better adjust to school life.
• 6 November 2007: The Chairman of Xinjiang, Ismail Tiliwaldi, met with the visiting executive chairman of the European Federation of Overseas Chinese, Jiang Ping. Tiliwaldi gave the basic rundown of Xinjiang’s situation and then the two discussed greater investment cooperation on projects such as environmental protection, ecological agriculture, and mineral resources development.
• 6 November 2007: 16,579 babies were born over the last year, compared to 12,705 the year before, which signifies a .31% increase in the birth rate. According to the latest statistics, the sex ratio for the preceding year is 111 boys per 100 girls, which is much higher than the average of 103-107.
• 7 November 2007: Tarim Oil Company has established China’s largest natural gas field, with proven reserves of 840 billion cubic meters. By the end of the year, Tarim Oil Company’s natural gas fields are expected to have produced 15.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas, much higher than its output last year of 11 billion cubic meters, when it was only the 2nd largest known field in China. Natural gas extracted from Xinjiang is sent to the energy hungry eastern part of China through the Xiangxiqidongshu Pipeline.
• 7 November 2007: Delegates from the Siberia Branch of Russia’s National Academy of Sciences and scientific research institutes in Xinjiang signed 27 cooperation agreements on October 26. The Russians currently have plans to conduct 40 research experiments and to setup 14 research stations in Xinjiang. These international agreements have a distinctively economic tint to them, as the greater portion of these cooperative efforts involve the petrochemical and coal industries, along with agriculture, animal husbandry, construction, software, and biotechnology.
• 7 November 2007: The “Deliver Warmth and Compassion with One Day’s Wages” program has officially begun in Xinjiang. Donations will be used to help low-income people prepare for the difficulties of the coming winter. The program calls on individuals, companies, and governmental agencies alike to donate a day’s wages or a day’s profits to contribute to the welfare of the poor.
• 7 November 2007: China Council for International Investment Promotion has set up a branch office in Urumqi. The state purpose of this move is to help promote the social and economic development of Xinjiang. Noting interest by both overseas Chinese in Europe and by the Russians in this week’s roundup, I say the timing couldn’t be better.
• 7 November 2007: Anyone interested in using the bathing facilities or lodging at Urumqi’s bath houses must now go through a formal registration process where they must provide their real name. Lobbies of these facilities are to be equipped with CCTV cameras whose tapes will be retained for 30 days. This move apparently is in response to a recognition of the bath houses as centers for prostitution, gambling, and drugs.
• 7 November 2007: Four buildings are to be designated as national level protected cultural sites: the former offices of the Eight Route Army, the former Soviet Consulate, Xinjiang People’s Theater, and the Shaanxi Great Mosque and Palace, a Hui place of worship. All are located in Urumqi.
• 7 November 2007: Xinjiang’s economic value as a frontier region bordering 8 different countries becomes apparent in new statistics revealing Xinjiang’s total import-export volume for this year to be valued at over 10 billion US dollars, a rise of 39% since the preceding year and 15% higher than the national average.
• 8 November 2007: A discussion forum on e-government services was opened in Urumqi on November 7. Representatives from China Telecom and 170 city and county level delegates attended.
• 9 November 2007: After 5 days of touring and inspection, the State Council’s AIDS prevention working committee expressed its approval of AIDS prevention efforts in Xinjiang. Recommendations made by the working committee include increasing AIDS prevention education and awareness for grass-roots level cadres, enhancing communication between the departments involved in the efforts, increase local financial input along with tighter budgetary oversight, and intensify propaganda and public awareness efforts.
• 9 November 2007: For the first time in several years, there was a surplus of jobs at the Xinjiang Autumn Talent Exchange Job Fair, where over 8000 positions were available to 6000 job-seekers. Analysts ascribe this both to novel paths to getting jobs, such as the growing availability of jobs in China proper and online applications, and to the steadily growing small and mid-sized company sector of the Xinjiang economy.
• 9 November 2007: An international team of 6 scientists, including individuals from America, Germany, and the Netherlands, visited the Qaramay National Nature Reserve in the Jungaria Basin to make observations of newly released wild specimens of Przewalski’s horse. An American expert from the Smithsonian Institute said the purpose of their visit included investigating the measures taken to assist the horses’ survival through the winter, and to help find a volunteer Kazakh herdsmen to track and monitor the horses on behalf of the Horse Breeding Research Center, a program which, if successful, will be expanded in the future.
• 9 November 2007: According to an official statement from the Xinjiang Public Health Department, the number of AIDS cases in Xinjiang has exceeded 20,000, though according to a national estimate, the actual number of AIDS cases in the region is probably over 60,000.This report also noted that most of these infections are concentrated in the Yili Kazakh Prefecture, Urumqi, Kashgar, and Aksu.
• 9 November 2007 : The former Chairman of the Board and General Manager for the Xinjiang Construction Group Construction Engineering Company and Chairman of the Board and General Manager for the Xinjiang International Trade Company, Jiang Peng, was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption. His company was allocated over 3 million yuan of public money for the construction of public works. Jiang was arrested in 2006 for suspicion of embezzlement of these funds, as far back as 2002.
• 9 November 2007: Six defendants in what has been dubbed the Kashgar “12-25″ Threat to National Security Case have been sentenced for attempting to split the country. Under the charges of splittist activities, organizing and leading a terrorist organization, and the illegal production of explosives, 4 death sentences and 2 life imprisonment sentences were passed down. The Xinhua article announcing this sentence also includes a detailed list of the alleged suspects’ activities, including running a terrorist training camp for two months with the Hollywood name of “Black Canyon,” conducting an explosives collecting operation dubbed “Operation Harvest Corn,” resisting PLA counterinsurgency efforts by sabatoging communications facilities, blowing up public buses, and occupying the Kusilafu village’s government building and declaring independence. Kusilafu is a village in Akto County (Location in Google Earth), a hotbed of resistance to Chinese rule.
• 10 November 2007: The Macao based charity Mingde will donate over 20,000 yuan to aid orphans with serious illnesses.

Other News

• 5 November 2007: Joei Villarama at the Filipino website Global Nation talks about her visit to Xinjiang.
• 7 November 2007 : Danwei runs front page of Xinjiang Metropolitan Daily, featuring SWAT members showing off their new equipment at Er Dao Qiao.
• 7 November 2007: Mongolia Web reports an outbreak of Horse Flu in Xinjiang near the border with Mongolia (as if things weren’t bad enough for the poor wild horses). Over 5,500 cases have been reported for what has been the first outbreak of equine flue for 13 years. Chinese officials have quarantined the horses and have issued assurances that the horse flu rarely fatal to the animals and does not transmit to humans.
• 8 November 2007: The English Edition of Xinhuanet runs an English language version of the article linked above discussing the international team investigating Przewalski’s horses near Qaramay.

Blogs

• 10 November 2007: Michael Manning at The Opposite End of China shares a Xinjiang-related piece of the PBS series China from the Inside.