They had been living in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for years, but their peaceful life was suddenly disturbed by the riot on July 5, which, they fear, would cast a shadow in their future.

To protect the interviewees, their real names are not used, but the accounts are authentic.

Happy experience in Xinjiang

Hu Junqiang graduated from Lanzhou University in northwest China's Gansu Province in 2003 and landed a job in Xinjiang.

"At first I thought I would just work for a few years and return to my hometown in Gansu," he recalled. Like many people, he had a stereotyped idea about Xinjiang at that time: a remote, less-developed region with a strange climate and unstable social order.

Two years later, however, Hu's view changed and he found himself unwilling to leave the region.

"It was more developed than Gansu, and local people are polite, warm-hearted and loyal to their parents," he said.

An example he gave was how locals behave when they meet strangers.

"In many big cities inland, people meet in the neighborhood but don't even look at each other, and nodding to strangers is considered a silly behavior," he said. "But in Urumqi, if you meet someone in your neighborhood, you would nod at him, he would smile and sometimes say hello to you."

"When you buy something from a peddler, no matter Uygur or Han, you can joke with him," he added.

Hu's job required him to communicate with strangers frequently.

"It was very easy to knock open their doors," he said. Unlike in some inland places where people tend to be more cautious with strangers, he felt welcome in Xinjiang.

That was why later Hu gave up several chances to transfer to inland provinces.

He got married to a local girl in 2007 in Urumqi, and is preparing to have a baby.

The riot on Sunday came as a bolt from the blue, and Hu felt that his world collapsed and he just wanted to cry.

A Uygur man's hope

Abdulla, 25, was waiting at the coach station in Urumqi. The bus to Yili would leave in two hours.

"My parents in Yili were worried about me after the riot and asked me to go back," said the man.

Abdulla worked in a travel agency. Due to the riot, tourists left Xinjiang and the agency gave them seven days off.

A graduate from Xinjiang University, Abdulla said he never left Xinjiang for all his 25 years.

The diligent man managed to make friends with many Han people in his own way.

Abdulla started to work as a part-time tour guide when he was still a junior student in college. During holidays, he had to work to make money and couldn't go back home. But he missed his parents.

Then Abdulla had a good idea.

"I brought the tourists to my home and my parents cooked for them," he said.

He could still recall the happiness when he sat under the grapetrellis, eating baked mutton and drinking milk tea.

Many tourists still maintained a good relationship with him. After the riot in Urumqi, Abdulla asked a friend in Shenzhen to help him check his sister's college entrance exam score. The man in Shenzhen Customs was one of his tourists in 2005.

In Abdulla's memory, Han people and Uygurs have always been on good terms since he was young.

"On the buses, the youngsters gave their seats to the elderly, whatever ethnic group they were from," he said.

Abdulla was not willing to talk much about the riot, because it left a scar in his heart.

Now more shops and restaurants were opened, and more people went to streets. Abdulla said that he was feeling better day by day.

He hoped that the riot could give people a lesson.

"We didn't know how precious peace, unity and social stability were, before the riot changed our life," he said.

"When it is over, I hope people could treasure more of what they had, and live in harmony," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2009)