Xinjiang is incredible to visit, the Uyghur language is beautiful and the culture is robust and everywhere, I loved my trip there. My uncle who went there in the 90s went with me this time and said it felt like Uyghur culture was much more realized, much less ultra conservative fundamentalists everywhere, safer in general. People forget that Islamist (referring to Salafist/Wahhabi and other ultra-conservative Islamic political fundamentalist groups) groups destroy culture and tradition as an aspect of their ideology.