Hey China Travelers,

In the past few days, all hell has broken loose  in Xinjiang with rioting, violence and an rising number of casualties. On TripAdvisor's China forum, someone suggested that if you are "ethnic Chinese" (or look ethnic Chinese), it might be wise to steer clear of travel to Urumqi (and Xinjiang in general) for your safety at the moment. That said, it appears Han Chinese mob reprisals against the Uighur minority have been fierce, overwhelming police control in some instances, and the situation appears to have broken down into the ugliest kind of inter-ethnic street fighting.

At any rate, Josh Summers of Far West China who lives in Xinjiang has been keeping us posted on things from his side (and thankfully, for once, he is not being blocked...so SHHHHHH!). He posted yesterday Riots Cripple Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi.  

And today Shanghaiist's Elaine Chow posted The Xinjiang Riots: What's happened so far --a well researched look at what is going on. She has compiled a number of articles from news sources and across the China blogosphere to give us a good account of what is really taking place or as much as one can hope for considering a lot of information about the situation is being hidden and blocked  (Twitter and Danwei are blocked, etc.).

We will continue to keep abreast of the situation and post travel-related information for you on this forum.


--Forum Editor