Photos: Patriotic tourism and minders in China’s new Xinjiang
As visitors to China's Xinjiang enjoyed new theme park-style tourist centres showcasing the region's Muslim Uyghur culture on a recent national holiday, signs of heavy security and state surveillance were never far away. Tourists smiled and posed in traditional dress on camels for photographs amid billboards extolling the ruling Communist Party. China is trying to move on from a security crackdown in Xinjiang in which more than a million ethnic Uyghurs were detained in re-education centres since 2016, according to UN experts and researchers – part of what Beijing has described as an effort to eradicate extremism. It wants to build a patriotic, multi-ethnic region that is secular, mandarin-speaking and attractive to domestic tourists who spend trillions of yuan a year on group tours and curated experiences.
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A performer wearing a monkey costume performs for tourists at a night market in the old city in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China on May 2. In the city of Kashgar, as Uyghur musicians serenaded tourists from the balcony of a picturesque tea shop, around a dozen police carrying shields and batons emerged from surrounding alleyways in an afternoon shift change.(Thomas Peter / REUTERS)
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A Chinese pagoda overlooks the old city in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China on May 4. Some new attractions in southern Xinjiang are just a short drive away from the camps and prisons built to service Beijing's anti-extremism drive, Reuters reported.(Thomas Peter / REUTERS)
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Performers in traditional clothes during a camel procession in the old city in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China on May 4.(Thomas Peter / REUTERS)
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A woman takes pictures of children during the May holidays tourist rush outside the old city in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, on May 4.(Thomas Peter / REUTERS)
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