by Casandra Tian

If you tell your friends that you are moving to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, you are probably going to get a lot of blank looks. Once you tell them that it is in China, the next question that you get is invariably whether or not it is close to Beijing or Shanghai.

Living in Xinjiang (which is China’s westernmost province and nowhere near Beijing or Shanghai) is really an exciting and interesting province to live in. When you are visiting some areas, you would not even believe that you are still in China, because it doesn’t have the same architecture, people, culture and living standards as the rest of the country.

So what do you need to know about living in Xinjiang? The best advice that someone can give you about moving here is that you should leave all of your valuables at home. If you love entertaining guests, leave your Lenox china at home, because dinner parties are different here. Instead of having a fancy sit down dinner, you are going to have a buffet style meal, or during the summer you’ll probably just eat the most delicious mutton straight off of the grill. Bringing all of your comforts from home to Xinjiang, which is often referred to as the wild west of China is about as practical as expecting to find salesmen selling timeshare deeds to ocean side properties here (the capital of the Province, Urumqi, claims to be the furthest city away from an ocean in the entire world).

What people will love about living in Xinjiang is that the pace is pretty laid back. The climate is pretty harsh, but for the couple of months a year where the weather is perfect, you will enjoy sitting outside in a nightly beer garden enjoying a cool breeze. Because people stay out drinking beer or cola all night, the pace of business during the day really tends to be a lot slower. When you first come to Xinjiang, you may be wondering why everyone is sleeping from one in the afternoon until three o’clock. At first you may resist taking a daily nap, but soon you’ll be changing into your pajamas mid day too.

Xinjiang is China’s largest province, which means that there is a lot of different diversity in both culture and in the way business is conducted. There are a lot business opportunities here, for example more and more wineries to make wine from the delicious fruit, so if you’ve come to the area to sell wine making supplies or in import export, you will have a pretty big learning curve. Don’t worry, because the people in Xinjiang are really friendly and will help you out as much as possible.

Living in Xinjiang is a life changing and exciting move for you to make. No guide is going to prepare you truly for what you are going to experience, so don’t try to over prepare for your new life in China.

About the Author

Casandra Tian is an American born writer, graduated from University of Illinois, and currently living in Xinjiang, China. She’s a frequent contributor to the following blogs: Selling Timeshare, Wine Making Supplies, and China Lenox.