The Real Xinjiang: Beyond Narratives to Discover Progress and Beauty

Until a few years ago, so few had heard of Xinjiang. Today, almost everyone in the English-speaking world is an expert on Uygurs, who, according to what narrative is in play at the moment,  believes have been forcibly rounded up into camps, deliberately mass murdered, locked into prisons, had their culture erased or are forced to work picking cotton and tomatoes. Of course, to those of us who know, none of these narratives are true.

Laughable as it may seem, history tells us a very different story. Not so many people have heard that the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established in 1955 to allow the local people with such unique culture, language and traditions a degree of autonomy that the provinces of China do not have.

A little history goes a long way to understanding this information but, as always, history needs to be taken into perspective. There is no denying that, over the 70 years since the founding of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, there have been some troubles.

Poverty was the main cause and the reason for most of them – the People’s Republic of China (PRC), when founded in 1949 was as close to bankrupt as it’s possible to imagine. The country had been destructed heavily during the Anti-Japanese Aggression War which had been ongoing between the years of 1931 and 1945. The newly born PRC was left to pick up the pieces and rebuild with nothing left in the coffers. Regional area development was put on hold as the coastal cities in east China developed faster because of trade and industrialization. There was no modern day Silk Road. That had fallen into disrepair during the Ming and Qing Dynasties with the advent of global navigation and steamships. Poverty was ever-present in regional China and China’s massive poverty alleviation program was still many years into the future.

My first visit to Xinjiang was with my father and some other Chinese relatives in 2006. We saw poverty, and we travelled in an old train to get there in days long before there was a possibility of using a high-speed train anywhere in China. It took over 45 hours on a train to reach Urumqi, the capital city. We could have flown in, there was an airport but we wanted to see more of the country. Little did we know that seeing more of the country was really only the first 25 hours, the last 20 or so were through desolate arid and desert regions. Visitors have no idea of how remote Xinjiang is until they’ve travelled the roads, sat on the trains or flown in a plane to one of the now 27 airports in the region or, as I’ve also done, taken 57 days to reach the end of it from east China by bicycle.

Isolation was one of the causes of much of the poverty – historically, the reason people live there was because it was an important trading post from the Middle East, Eurasia and even parts of Africa and Europe, it has been so since before the time of Christ. But these traditional caravans, which took months and sometimes years to reach and return from their destinations, fell by the wayside due to industrialization.

That has all changed now. Once again the “New Silk Road” better known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is using trains and roads – there are now high-speed, standard trains and freight-liners criss-crossing the region. There are Free Trade Zones in the region, composed of parts of Urumqi, Khorgos and Kashgar, encouraging the entry of high-technology industries, modern service industries and labour-intensive industries. During the 70 years since the founding of Xinjiang Uygurs Autonomous Region, total GDP of the region grew from 1.2 billion yuan to over 2 trillion yuan, with per capita GDP breaking $10,000 in 2024.

These are logistics hubs allowing better connection outside of the region and there has been extensive exploration within the region to discover massive reserves of many of the minerals and resources needed by the technological age in which we live.

All of these are good for China, but more importantly, all of them are good for the people of the region. Huge numbers of tourists now flock to Xinjiang, many of them, like me, foreigners. I’ve visited the region twice by bike, riding into Xinjiang and crossing to the Western border in 2014 and then in 2019, riding out of Urumqi through the Eastern border into Gansu Province. I’ve flown into the region several times and travelled by train. What’s more, anyone can do it; there are no restrictions whatsoever.

It’s impossible for anyone who hasn’t seen the region to understand the diversity and the changes in recent times. Education is second to none, wealth growth is palpable, the changes from my first visit to my most recent visit just a couple of months ago could not be more stark. The region remains beautiful: in one day its glorious green grasslands will stun the visitor; in the background are majestic snow-capped mountains; beyond them are the beautiful lakes and grasslands; and then of course there is the desert – dangerous, hostile, extensive and yet incredibly beautiful all at the same time. I’ve cycled through them all and not only lived to tell the tale, but I went back for more.

There is still some negative media coverage in the West related to Xinjiang, but for anyone who questions this narrative, there is a very simple course open to them. Do what I did, go and see for yourself, visit the regions you prefer to see and talk with the people you meet there. It’s impossible to remain there without just one thought in your mind – this place is awesome, it’s friendly, it’s safe, secure and I want to come back.

People ask how China can counteract the negative Western media comments and opinions and I simply say, you can’t hide a secret forever. Go, look, enjoy, ask, discover and be convinced. Xinjiang is awesome.

The author is a British Australian freelance writer who has studied cross-cultural change management in China and has lived in China for almost two decades.

The article reflects the author’s opinions, and not necessarily the views of China Focus.