That began a tide of transmigration. That year, the UN estimates that ethnic Han Chinese made up just seven percent of Xinjiang's population. That figure has now risen to 40 percent.
"This is the land of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers. You want us to give it up?" snorted Yasin, a fiery barber in Kashgar, a city of 3.5 million that is pungent with the aroma of animals and raw sewage and for two millennia served as a trading post on the fabled Silk Road.
Today, Turkic-speaking Uighurs and Mandarin-speaking Han live side-by-side in a sparsely populated region rich with oil and minerals. Few dare to talk openly about the tensions simmering only just below the surface.
The crackdown on Uighur separatists has gained momentum since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, although Washington has urged Beijing not to use the war on terror as a pretext to crack down on political dissent.
Indeed, the Han and Uighur cultures differ greatly. Many Uighurs live by Xinjiang time -- two hours behind the official Beijing time that is imposed China-wide.
"The Han and us Uighurs never mix. We are as different as night and day. They don't understand our language, our religion and our culture," said Abdeluky, a sprightly 79-year-old.
Experts say the divide will persist for some time to come.
The only way the Chinese government can conceive of dealing with ethnic tension is either through repression or economic investment, said Dru Gladney at the University of Hawaii.
"They've tried both for 50 years with no real tangible improvement," said the expert on China's Muslims.
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