Xinjiang – China’s final frontier Xinjiang, a gargantuan province making up one fifth of the Peoples Republic of China and bordering Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India is seen by may foreign travellers a China’s final frontier. A piece of land that signifies the end of China and the beginning of Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. Much has been written on the subject of Xinjiang, so I certainly cannot cover it in depth in such a short article. However I will do my best to give a very brief introduction. Xinjiang is very different to the rest of Chinas. The Uyghur community which makes up roughly 46% of Xinjiang’s population is culturally, linguistically and ethnically different from the Han Chinese, the most dominant of Chinas 56 ethnic groups and the second largest ethnic group in Xinjiang. Aside from this there are numerous other ethnic groups in…