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Leisure weekend life in Urumqi, hope overwelming fear

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-20 11:15

Gyl just came back from a business trip to the southern city of Guangzhou on July 5, and all her goods had been kept in stock since then.

With the return of customers on Sunday, however, Gyl regained confidence in the business potentials.

Near the wedding dress building is a construction site of a viaduct, where Yang Tian and his three colleagues are busy digging holes.

Full Coverage:  Riot in Urumqi Related readings:  Beauty contest shakes off shadow of riot in Urumqi  Facts show riot 'far beyond ordinary violent matter'  Official: 12 mobsters in Urumqi riot shot dead  Mosques reopen to prayers in riot-hit Urumqi  Riot hurts Xinjiang economy

Yang, a 20-year-old something from the southwestern province of Sichuan less than two months ago, witnessed the riot after he arrived in Urumqi. The new comer did not hide his fears for the mobs, nor his willing to continue his work.

"Business is business," he said.

The renowned Erdaoqiao business area in downtown Urumqi, mainly inhabited by Uygur business people, also saw flows of customers, while police equipped with anti-riot gear patrol around.

Scarf shop owner Semiliang was greatly relieved to see customers to come back. The business of the 19-year-old man fell stagnant after the July 5 riot and only saw signs of recovery in recent days.

"It's much better these days. I can sell more than 100 scarves everyday,"he said. "Orange and light gray-blue ones are most popular. They are almost sold out."

It is common for Uygur women to have a dozen of scarves, a daily necessity for them. Semiliang goes to Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province for his supply of scarves every two months.

"The scarves there are of good quality," he said.

In the Shengli Street several blocks away from Erdaoqiao, the Arman Supermarket, which is famous for selling local Uygur food and grocery, reopened on July 10. The closing time was rescheduled from 23:00 to 20:00.

The number of customers was no more than that of the supermarket workers in blue uniforms even on Sunday.

Mosques opened to prayers as usual. Shoes lined outside the gate of Baida Mosque in downtown Urumqi. Afternoon prayer has already started, but people kept trotting in.

In Hongshiyue community, one of the city's largest residential areas, old men were chatting under trees and kids were playing around.

In an internet caf opposite to the Hongshiyue community, Tan Jiding, a sales representative from a pharmaceutical company in Guangdong Province, was watching American soap opera Friends provided by the caf.

"Having no access to the internet here is really inconvenient. I cannot send e-mails to friends and customers or play online games," he said.

Text message service in Xinjiang was also intercepted. Tan said he cannot receive information from his company timely as most of the company notices were sent to him by text message.

"It seemed to me that I finally have enough time to watch the movies and TV series I had always wanted to watch," Tan said.

On a street still under traffic control, one pick-up was shuttling back and forth slowly with speakers repeatedly broadcasting a government appeal in mandarin and Uygur alternatively, calling for ethnic unity and social stability.

Outside the Tuanjie Huanyuan (Unity Garden) community, a notice issued by local authorities urging the public to report criminal suspects involved in the July 5 riot was pasted on a poster board side by side with an employment advertisement handwritten in Uygur.

Red banners with Chinese and Uygur slogans were seen everywhere, calling on the public to "exercise restraint and do not believe in rumors" and "remain sober minded and do not be misled by enemies."

As life gradually returned to normal in the city, those traumatized in the riot were struggling to walk out of the nightmare memory.

"I didn't sleep well in the first week. What happened then kept coming to my mind. Now it's getting better," said Wang Shouchun, who was taken to the No. 23 Hospital in downtown Urumqi on the night of July 5.

Forty three-year-old Wang was beaten by rioters with clubs and stones and had a broken rib and head and kidney injuries. "As I'm getting better day by day, I feel much more calm now," he said.

Experts said that over the past two weeks, victims had experienced dramatic emotional fluctuations.

"From being terrified, to numbness, anger, panic, insomnia and relative calmness..The victims are getting better both physically and mentally,"said Meng Xinzhen, a mental health expert.

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