Day five in Xinjiang-A visit to the Kazakh folk tourism spot

The horse and cart is used like a taxi in the Kazakh tourist spot  in Yili prefecture, Xinjiang region, China. Photo taken on Friday  22 August, 2009.[Photo:CRIENGLISH.com]

We stopped outside one of the large gateways to enter a sizeable house of a local Uygur family. After taking our shoes off we were led into the front room, which was rather bare, except for a shelf which ran around every wall and was full of pictures and ornaments. We were given a brief description of the pictures from the owner of the house, who was a man of around 50 about five feet tall with tanned skin and facial features more akin to central Asia than China. He was wearing a black traditional hat white motifs and spoke in Uygur through a younger translator. The man was a local trader and told us of how his life has improved immeasurably over the last few years and that he is particularly optimistic about the future of his small children. He also mentioned that he has a good relationship with the Han Chinese despite the recent troubles.

Leaving the house bouncing gently through the village on the horse drawn cart I certainly didn't get any sense of troubled relations or discontent among the villages, may of whom were happy to smile and wave at us as we passed. However, as we left the area and emerged from underneath the brick archway, a quick glance behind us revealed a small troop of soldiers, three army vehicles plus a tank stationed directly below the huge billboard welcoming the site to tourists. A sign that, while the government's policies have been successful in achieving swift stability in the region, it is very serious about keeping things that way.