JABAR EKSPRES – Chinese authorities in Beijing have allowed 20 Japanese tourists to visit Xinjiang Autonomous Region, an area heavily populated by the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.
Tourist visits to China were allowed again after being delayed for a year due to the country’s strict COVID-19 anti-pandemic policies.
“The first group of tourists has now started their visit. What is certain is that they will experience the country and no longer misunderstand,” Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian was quoted as saying by local media on Sunday.
At a cost of 327,000 yen (about Rp34.2 million) per person, the tourists from Osaka visited five cities in Xinjiang: Urumqi, Turban, Aksu, Korla, and Kashgar.
The Chinese Consulate General in Osaka issued a notification letter on December 2, 2021 about the opening of access to tourist visits to Xinjiang after the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
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The policy attracted media attention in Japan, and in less than a month, 1,028 local tourists applied for visitor visas.
The Japanese tourists also visited an anti-terrorism museum in Urumqi, several mosques, and cotton plantations.
Xinjiang, located in the westernmost region of mainland China, has been in the global spotlight in recent years due to issues related to human rights violations, genocide, and forced labor.
“We hope that through this visit, Xinjiang will become a window for Japanese citizens to become more interested in China’s development model and change their view of China,” Xue said in an interview with the Global Times.
