Photos: Aykut Töleğen
At the invitation of the Information Office of the People’s Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Xinjiang Branch of China News Agency, we visited Xinjiang between December 12-21. Chinese officials determined the trip’s theme as “The Warm Snow of Xinjiang.” Turkish singer Tarkan is very popular in the region. Inspired by one of his old songs and the event’s theme, we decided to call the theme “Winter Sun.”
The group was large, consisting of 28 invitees from 8 countries. Among the guests from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Russia, Japan, and Pakistan, we represented Türkiye on behalf of Aydınlık Newspaper.
SUSTAINABLE WINTER TOURISM IN URUMQI
The program began in Urumqi, the capital of the Autonomous Region, and was quite intensive. The temperature hovered around -15 to -20 degrees Celsius. Our Chinese friends had frequently warned us to “dress warmly” before coming to the region, so I decided to gear up, considering it would be colder than Beijing. Xinjiang is famous for its cotton, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s production. With our cotton woolen outfits, we were ready for our “Winter Sun” visit.
FROM URUMQI TO HAKKARI…
Our first stop was the “Silk Road Mountain Resort,” a region highlight, especially for ski tourism. We noticed tourists from all over China, the region, and Japan. Seeing the development of tourism in a region clean of extremism and terrorism through state-led investments and a planned economy, we discussed with Aydınlık Newspaper’s photographer Aykut Töleğen how we could apply the same model to Türkiye’s Hakkari.
Officials at the Silk Road Mountain Resort told us they had already hosted twice as many tourists in 2024 as the previous year. The 2022 Winter Olympics in China also significantly focused on the country and the region. Thanks to a 30-day visa waiver for 38 countries, winter tourism reservations for Urumqi have increased by more than 160%. Urumqi’s natural advantages for winter sports and tourism include high slopes, heavy snowfall, durable powder snow, and skiing opportunities extending into spring.
FROM THE QING DYNASTY TO TODAY:
Urumqi No. 1 Middle School
After a short break at winter tourism facilities, we continued exploring the region with a visit to Urumqi No. 1 Middle School (Chinese 乌鲁木齐市第一中学), considered the region’s best school.
The school was established in 1891 during the Qing Dynasty. While primarily a middle school, it expanded to include primary education, catering to younger students. During the Qing era, it was planned as an elite school where the smartest primary school students of the region could study. The school’s motto is “Virtuous, Inspirational, and Knowledgeable,” prominently displayed at its entrance, immediately capturing visitors’ attention.
Ranked among China’s top 10 educational institutions, the school’s success is evident in high school and university entrance exams. In 2008, its students achieved the second-highest average scores in national exams, consistently placing the school in the top 10 ever since. The students reflect the harmony of Xinjiang’s various ethnic groups, including Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Hui, and Mongolian.
Since 2017, the school has operated in a new campus built with an investment of over 551 million yuan (approximately 2.5 billion Turkish Lira), covering an area of over 14,000 hectares. The campus includes two teaching buildings, two science buildings (one being a three-story library), an office building, an arts center, an astronomy-music integration center, a stadium, three dormitories, a standard football field, and a cafeteria building.
We began our visit in the courtyard of the primary school building. The ground was painted navy blue, and when officials mentioned a “naval elite personnel training program,” the significance of the blue floor became clear. Responding to foreign journalists’ comments like “But Xinjiang has no sea,” officials replied, “Anywhere is suitable for training sailors, and every land opens to a sea.”
Next, we moved to the middle school building’s sports complex. Hockey team students greeted us and showcased the skills learned in physical education classes. A 14-year-old Kazakh student, the hockey team captain, stated his goal of “winning a medal at the Olympics.”
‘BEND THE TREE WHILE IT IS YOUNG’
Observing the harmony, creativity, and discipline of primary and middle school students in China evokes great happiness for humanity. It reminded us of the major cultural transformation our country underwent in the Republic’s early years and the philosophy of leaving a great future as a legacy for small bodies.
Seeing children from various ethnic backgrounds forming the Chinese nation brings to mind children worldwide. The importance of teaching children to be virtuous individuals and striving for a classless, harmonious society cannot be overstated. As the saying goes, “Bend the tree while it is young.” Similarly, in Chinese, a proverb means, “Knowledge is like a plant growing from a small seed into a big tree.”
On the one hand, there are children in the West exploited in LGBT marches, paraded as so-called “homosexual” children; on the other, there are China’s preventive measures against the ideology poisoning our children, families, and society, starting with programs directing boys towards masculinity and girls towards femininity from primary school. These were the impressions left on us by Urumqi No. 1 Middle School, one of the pioneers of the future society and the Asian Century in China.
This article is retrieved from Aydinlik Newspaper
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