Our flight from Beijing to Urumqi was largely without incident. We left on time and had a smooth flight across the country, most of which I slept through.
We landed to cloudy skies and drizzle, surprising considering Urumqi's claim to fame as the driest city in the world. It is farther from the ocean than any other city. And yet here it was, raining.
Because we are at the ends of the earth, we did not have a connecting flight from Beijing all the way to Kashgar (Kashi in Mandarin). Instead, we flew one airline to Urumqi and then had to collect our baggage and take another airline to Kashgar. This also involved a terminal transfer.
Switching terminals at an airport is not unheard of: usually there is some sort of train or tram or shuttle. But the Urumqi airport is not that big, so we walked out of terminal two and turned right, and then walked a few thousand feet up the sidewalk to terminal three.
As we neared the terminal our way was suddenly blocked by some cones. I looked up, and there was a long line of policemen dressed in S.W.A.T gear maintaining a lane perimeter in front of the terminal. And, lined up in two lines heading into the airport, were about fifty Muslim men dressed in blue and white robes and caps.
In the wake of September 11th, the Chinese government has declared and Muslim separatists, activists, or otherwise uncooperative-ists "terrorists" (of the international kind, of course).
And today is National Day, remember, in an "election" year. Tensions always run high around state holidays in this country.
We just kept walking. I pretended not to notice or care what was happening around me.
And across the far lane of traffic was a solitary Muslim woman in her head scarf, watching, silently.
(Later, we were told they were on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Going is a big deal, involving tens of thousands of kuai in deposits and long waits and all sorts of red tape to ensure no one is trying to emigrate — pr really just to dissuade any allegiance to the religion.)
- Do you really care this was posted using BlogPress from my iPad?
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