The weather was pretty nice today and was able to see a blue sky.

Visited University of Xinjiang.

Students clearing up the snow

Library with Uygur writing on the left and Mandarin on the right

Nationalistic Slogan (Long life to the great People’s republic of China)

Inside the library. The library even has a glass elevator.

Snow from yesterday

ErDaQiao market. Deer products, such as horn and different parts of the animal as health products.

City View

Main Square

Ice Carving

Slide

Walked 4 hours from the southern part of the city to the northern part.
JiaJiaLe shopping mall.

I visited Mall 71 yesterday as well and noticed that China has a lot of their own products and brands on the shelf. Unlike most other countries where international brands dominate the local market, China has a pretty wide varieties of their own brands. In both supermarket, they have many selections of ready to eat food and it’s very tempting for me to spend money.

I sent my camera for repair 2 days ago and I was able to pick it up today. It cost 200 Yuan~USD$30 to fix the lens. I was quoted a price 3 times more in Iran. Service in China is still inexpensive.

Looking at the Classified section in newspaper, average salary is around 1,500-2000Yuan ~USD$250 in XinJiang. Compared to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, people here do have a much higher purchasing power because things are cheaper because of the strong competition among businesses.

Spoke with a few people about the July 5th riot in Urumqi and most people mentioned that the death toll was much higher than what was reported by the government. More than a thousand people were killed. The owner of the shop where I sent my camera for repair told me that 2 of his friends were killed. Majority of those killed were Han Chinese. Even taxi driver told me that most Uygur attackers were not from Urumqi but from other cities. The riot was a planned event by some Uygur separatist group overseas. People were also afraid that once the internet ban is lifted, separatist group overseas will try to spread rumours and organize riot again. A nurse told me that there were still patients staying in the hospital because of the riot.

The road across the desert is in good condition

and surprisingly cell phone signal was pretty good all along the way.

Saw 2 big wind farms along the way. China has one of the biggest wind farms in the world.

Arrived in Urumqi at around 12pm after 26 hours on the bus. Spending Chistmas in Urumqi..yea..

Urumqi is the biggest city in western China with population of around 3 millions. The word Urumqi means beautiful pastures in Mongolian language. Han Chinese are the majority, with 70% of the population and Uygur consists of 15% of the population. The city was pretty cold, temperature was below -20C.

I think Communist China is the closest example to the perfect competition economy we studied in economic textbook. From what I can recall was that, there won’t be marginal/abnormal profit in an perfect competitive economy. From what we learned in school, America was not considered a perfect competitive economy and most people don’t even considered CHina as a market economy then. There are restaurants and hotels everywhere in the 2 cities I had visited and I can feel that business are so competitive here that marginal profit is close to zero.

Found Hotel Brothers on YanAnLu for (60Yuan~USD$9).

Later I found out that the JUly 5th riot was started around this area.

Around BianJiangBinGuan area, there are many traders and business people from Central Asian countries. Most of the signs here have 3 languages, Mandarin, Uygur and Russian. The Cyrillic characters reminded me of my trip in Central Asia.

Tried to get some warmer clothes at the bazaar.

ErDaoQiao market

Carrefour and KFC were the earlier western brands that invested in China. The investments paid off and these companies are holding a big market share in China currently.

City View
The architectures here have some Islamic influences.

Is this a real Uniqlo?

After the riot in JUly 5th, SMS and long distance call can’t be made. I had to wait 2 hours at CHina telecom office

to make a Christman eve call overseas. The customer service so far in China had been top class and better than what I expected.

Clowns inside a mall

Ice Carving at GUangChang.

Chinese fast food company, Best Food.

The manager told me that this brand has in business since 10 years ago. New competitions for KFC and McD.

Today is Christmas Eve and it seemed many Chinese joined in the celebration with some people wearing Santa’s hat and Christmas decorations in stores. When I use the word Chinese, I am including the different ethnicity such as Uygur, Kazakhs, HUi…

Found a bar at YouHaoLu with Christmas Eve performance.

????

Took a 10am bus to Urumqi (24 hours ride, 248 Yuan~USD$35). The cheapest flight to Urumqi is 570 Yuan at 1pm but I figured that I will probably just gain 7 hours of free time or 2 hours of sunlight after taking account of sleeping time and transportation to and from the airport. Plus I will get to see some desert by taking the bus.

The bus had a delay and left at 12pm.
< In China, there are many slogans or propaganda written on the wall. Here, a flowchart showing the bus driver the process of entering the bus station.

Responsibilities of the bus station surpervisor are stated at the bus station.

View on the way

China’s growth is pretty amazing, even as a city at the western frontier, the city is well planned, relatively clean, has great infrastructures and there are many varieties of goods and services offered. Kashgar is relatively modern compared to most cities in Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. I was curious how the city looked like even just 5 years ago.

However, toilets in China are still pretty backward