The Return

日记， 你好！

I have returned from western china. Interesting enough where we went is not actually referred to as western china, it is instead the 新疆（XinJiang）Autonoumous Region and western china is where central or east central china is. Maybe even more surprising is that新疆 isn’t all that Chinese. In the last several decades there have been a huge number of Han Chinese immigrants that have balanced the numbers, but before the 1950’s the place had very “Chinese”. Even now in the cities and especially in the city cores there is very little Chinese spoken and very few “Chinese” people. Most of the population is a minority called the Uighurs. They and their language are of Turkish decent and they are Muslim. It was difficult to believe we were still in china. In the states I had often heard things like “free Tibet,” but never free新疆.

Although I was frustrated with many parts of the trip, it turned out fine and I did enjoy several parts. That being said I will never participate in group travel again. I have posted some photos of the trip here for your viewing pleasure.

I tried the Beijing night life for the first time last night. It was a classmate’s birthday so about 20 of us went to a bar. It was not to exciting, co I came home early. I will probably give it a try again.