I just arrived in Xinjiang for our family holiday and the one thing that immediately strikes me is that, so far, there seems to be virtually no foreign visitors (other than myself).
We're in one of THE most touristic spot in the entire region, the central bazaar in Urumqi (which has great food, by the way, offering full refunds if the food doesn't taste good, see picture 👇), and it's fully packed but only with local Uyghurs and visiting Chinese tourists - not a single foreigner around!
This is pretty crazy to me: there's so much being said about Xinjiang but obviously people don't bother coming here to check things with their own eyes. Despite there being absolutely zero restrictions to do so: as a French man I can even stay here 30 days visa-free, I just need to book a flight and show up, that's it 🤷♂️
I know I sound like a broken record on this but that's the biggest illness affecting commentary on China: people simply speak about it in the abstract without engaging with the reality of the place.