Muslim Uighurs left behind by China's tourism boom

TUYOQ, China, Dec 28 (Reuters) Tuyoq seems an unlikely place to start a revolution.

A sleepy village of grape-growers strung along a stream trickling out of the arid mountains in China's remote northwestern Xinjiang region, its main attractions are a small Muslim shrine and a handful of defaced Buddhist grottoes.

But earlier this year the ethnic tensions that are rife across the area bubbled over in a three-day showdown between the Muslim Uighur minority who live there and the Chinese businessmen they felt were exploiting them.

Their ''ancient folk house scenic spot'', as the tickets put it, has become a popular site on the tourist circuit. But none of the 30 yuan (3.85 dollar) ticket price was reaching the villagers.

Furious about this and the casual attitude of atheist Chinese tourists in a Muslim pilgrimage site, they blockaded roads in the village, keeping tourists out until the company running the tours agreed to hand over two yuan per ticket, visitors and locals say.

''We wanted them to give us some of the money they were making from our traditions, our lives,'' said one young villager, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Domestic tourism is booming in China, generating a record 40 billion yuan over May's week-long Labour Day holiday alone. Beijing argues that visitors lift incomes in the impoverished but beautiful regions left behind by the growth on the east coast.

Publicity drives have boosted visitor numbers fourfold since the tours began in 2004, said an official at the government-owned company that manages Tuyoq tourism.

Many in the village are happy to have holiday-making customers drifting to their door regardless of whether they get a slice of entrance fees.

''I sell my grapes here for 10 yuan for 500 grams, compared with six to seven yuan in the market,'' said 20 year-old Selima, standing beside bowls of fruit in a vine-shaded courtyard.

TIGHT GRIP But Han Chinese dominance of the tourist industry means the middle classes flocking to Xinjiang in increasing numbers to peer across the cultural divide, are doing little to bridge economic gaps.

A pattern seen across China, of well-connected outsiders cornering lucrative tourism opportunities, is exacerbated by this separation and mistrust between Han and Uighur.

''(But) Xinjiang is really different in this regard and I think that has to do with real distrust and discrimination against Uighurs, a feeling they are not reliable, and since September 11 a fear of radical Islam -- a fear and fascination,'' said Dru Gladney, professor of anthropology at Pomona College in the United States and an expert on the region.

Xinjiang's tourist board declined comment.

Nominally an autonomous area governed by the Uighurs -- although they now make up only 9 million of the areas' 20 million people -- Beijing keeps a tight grip on the region which borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and three Central Asian republics, and where it fears separatist sentiments could lead to violence.

Top government officials are usually ethnic Han Chinese, the region's vast oil, gas and coal fields are exploited almost entirely by outsiders and the second language on signs in the regional capital is English as often as Uighur.

A pattern seen across China, of well-connected outsiders cornering lucrative tourism opportunities, is exacerbated by this separation and mistrust between Han and Uighur.

ENFORCED CALM The old quarter of the historic oasis town of Kashgar has been taken over for tourism in a similar way to Tuyoq and is run by a Han Chinese company based in central China.

The tour guides, some of whom are observant Muslims, are expected to follow atheist conventions, including in their dress.

''I would prefer to wear a headscarf because if your head is uncovered and a man looks at you in the street it is your fault, but we can't at work,'' said one guide, who also asked not to be named.

Few of the visitors, who sometimes demand ethnic Han guides to the Uighur sites, seem worried about underlying tensions.

''I think the reason Han (Chinese) are running these sights is that the Uighurs don't really have the skills or the interest,'' said a teacher from the former imperial capital of Xian.

Beijing's control is so firm and multi-pronged political, military, economic and cultural that it is hard to imagine the region spiralling into the type of violence that destroyed the lucrative tourist industry of India's northern Kashmir region.

But experts warn that Beijing is nurturing a seething caldron of resentment that is waiting to erupt if its authority falters.

''It is no different from any other modernisation where people are losing their culture, but it is impossible to have any counterweight because the history and culture is all so politically sensitive,'' said Nicholas Bequelin, a Xinjiang expert at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.

''The peace and calm we see in Xinjiang today is not equilibrium, it's a stability enforced from above,'' he added.

Reuters BDP GC1026