Hello everyone!
Hi!!
Today we are in Urumqi
Which is famous for being the most continental
city in the world.
Very far from any ocean. So, if you like beaches
this is not a good place to live
This is a big city
beautiful, modern
and extremely policed
And with some muslim influence
You can see by the facade of this hotel
and now we are at a muslim majority neighborhood
to visit their big bazar
The Xinjiang province if a very tense province in China
that's the reason for so much police
The police is everywhere.
Every hotel has a metal detector at the entrance
and a cop
At the stores, malls...
it is normal to have one.
every bus stop has a policeman with a portable metal detector. He may use it on you, may not...
For you to understand this situation
I will tell the whole story.
we have been attacked these days in the comment box
being called "communists" for having talked some good things about North Korea
and being called "anti-communists" for having talked some bad things about North Korea
So we will try to explain it in the most neutral way we can
and then each you you may conclude whatever you want
Look at the entrance of the Bazar
China is formed by many ethnic groups
this groups, in the past, lived separated
and then some of them started to have influence over the others
sometimes one was conquered
maybe in a pacific way, maybe by violence
but thet were, step by step, being united, and in last century
they formed what is the China now
There's over than 50 ethnic groups
The major one is known as "han"
who is the main group, the most common stereotype of a chinese person
and there are many others, some of them speak different languages, different dialects
most of them consider themselves "chinese", are proud of the China
and they live together with their differences
And, at this region of Xinjiang, there was a group called "Uyghur"
who are decendent from the Turks
their language is a branch of the Turkish
And many centuries ago, China conquered this region, took over the control
there were some attempts of independence, of freedom
but it was stable for some time
And, in order to keep the control, China started to send some people to live here
many "han" people come to this place
and, today, I believe they are the majority
there are more hans than uyghurs now
and there are other groups, of course
but these are the main ones
And then, during the civil war of China, in last century
where the communists took the power
the uyghurs claimed for independence
Xinjiang became an independent country
but soon they were conquered again and attached back to the chinese territory
Now, let's go to Afghanistan
China was communist and the Soviet Union was communist
but, after a while, they didn't get along
because the Soviet Union wanted to attach China to the soviet block
and China wanted to keep it's independence
And China also had some problems with Afghanistan for some conflicts during the War of Vietnam
So, when the Soviet Union decided to support the Afghan state
China decided to support the rebels
Among the rebels there were groups like Taliban
Soon USA started to support the rebels as well
and then the USA trained some people, like Bin Laden
and, in the end, the soviets lost the war
The Taleban took over the control of Afghanistan, but that's another story
The point is: when China supported the rebels in Afghanistan, they sent some Uyghurs to fight there
and some of them came back to China with some rebel feelings
claiming for independence
and then a strong independence movement started
sometimes using methods like terrorist attacks and so
So China, in order to not lose territory nor suffer with terrorrism, implemented here a very authoritarian regime
So, if for us, as tourists, it is difficult to travel here
you have to register where you go, each hotel, at the road
there are many police checkpoints
Imagine the situation for this group, the Uyghurs
And, when I say that they are separatists, that some of them are terrorists
I am talking about a very few of them. There are many Uyghurs who don't have anything to do, some of them doesn't even care about politics
they just want to live their lives, but they are also subjected to this authoritarism
and then it is very difficult to have an opinion
China, for example, wants to classify this group as "terrorists"
other countries don't
after the September 11th attacks in the United States
China supported the intervention in Afghanistan
For considering Al Qaeda and Taleban as terrorists
but they wanted to include some Uyghurs in the group of terrorists too
And the USA said, "no, it is your problem"
so, today, this ethnic group live a very complicated situation here
Also, there are some "reeducation fields" here in China
We read that there are around 1 million people at these fields
And we don't know what happens inside them. China says that it is only normal classes, they show videos explaining the Chinese system
And how good it is, how it is better for them to belong to China
western media talks about torture, about brainwash
so, there are many versions of this story
but you can see that is is a very complicated region
our next destination is a region where the Uyghurs are the majority
We hope to learn a lot there to show everything to you
For now, we are visiting the capital, so it is a brief introduction to this story
Uyghurs here in this city are not so much, if compared to the Han
but one can see their influence
Apparently, even though there were some terrorist attacks in the past
the control is working in terms of security
Is it ok to give up your rights in order to be safe?
everyone has it's own opinion
Those who are poor in Brazil have no rights and no security, so it is a much more complicated situation
here I go again giving my own opinion
So, no more history, let's see the city now
This is the famous market. So far we were in a street market
This is a beautiful market, very unique
a mix of middle orient and China
We are very excited, because now we are entering in that Middle East world that we see on TV
this culture that has influence from the Turks, the arabics...
By the way, the next country we will visit it the country of Aladdin
But isn't the Aladdin chinese?
Yes, Aladdin is chinese, but when the 1001 Nights was written, Kyrgystan belonged to China
This market smells good, it is a mix of spices, fruits...
It is very beautiful from outside
And some people say that this is the most boring city of this region
And we are impressed because this is China!
It is very different of the image of China we have
Look, a magic lamp
No genius inside
Actually, I think that the magic lamp is a Disney creation
I believe that, in the book, Aladdin had a magic ring
This is the language of the Uyghurs. Every sign is written in Uyghur and in Mandarin
And, here, as it is touristic, in English also
But it is usually only Uyghur and Chinese
Uyghur language is based on Turkish, and not Arabic
Today Turkey uses latin characters
But the Uyghurs still use the Arab alphabet to write
You may find it written in latin and also in cyrillic sometimes
But it is usually written using the Arab alphabet
It looks like those arab markets we see on the movies
Look how many flags of China
It is nice to show, because it is not so common to see chinese flags in Beijing, Shanghai, or in any other region without conflicts
We only saw many flags here and in the Tibetan region we had visited
Maybe imposition of China? Maybe a sign of peace?
Imposition of China, for sure!
We bought a bread to try. It costed 5 yuan
It is impressive how the chinese people love photos. All these people for a simple bread sculpture
So, this is Urumqi, and a brief introduction to the province of...
-Xinjiang -Xinjiang!
Let's see what else interesting we can see here in the next days
So, see you!!