Slum makeover

The strips of shanty towns that once raised eyebrows of visitors to Urumqi's urban areas are now disappearing.

The authorities have stepped up efforts to tear down mud-and-brick makeshift houses and replace them with modern concrete apartments.

About 15,000 households in 50 slum areas will be covered by the government-funded project this year, officials say.

All of the city's 234 slum areas will be demolished and rebuilt by 2012, and the government will spend another two years to improve community facilities, Xie Min, deputy director of Urumqi's construction committee, previously told Xinhua.

The sprawling slum areas were home to 250,000 people, mostly ethnic Uygurs migrating from poorer parts of Xinjiang. The slums, considered the breeding ground for petty crimes, caught the attention of authorities after a number of the low-income and jobless young tenants were found participating in the July 5 riots.

Police have often complained of the difficulty keeping track of the migrants in the slums.

The government has spent 3.6 billion yuan (554 million U.S. dollars) in overhauling 19 slum clusters to resettle 6,259 households over the past year.

Ayizumkhan, 77, said she was happy for the comfort of modern living after moving into her new apartment from the Heijiashan slum a year ago.

She said the government shouldered the cost of housing and gave her money for furniture.

At Yashan, once known as a "thug town" by local residents, rows of six-floor concrete apartment buildings have replaced shacks and hovels. A clinic, kindergarten, and activity center have also been built in the area.

Visitors to Yashan Park have increased as they feel it is safer now that the nearby slum has been cleaned up.

The government is also pushing forward a plan to install tens of thousands of high-definition cameras to allow "seamless" surveillance of sensitive places in the city.

Nearly 17,000 cameras were installed in the city last year, enabling police to monitor an additional 2,109 public venues including parks, schools, public buses and streets. Officials say the surveillance will be expanded this year.

Jobs

Creating jobs has been one of the top priorities of the Xinjiang regional government over the past two years, as officials consider stable income through employment crucial to lifting poor Uygur families out of poverty and keeping idle youth away from venting their energy in violence.

Xinjiang, covering about one-sixth of China's land territory, is home to large stretches of deserts. Agriculture has been the prime sector of Xinjiang. The development of industries and services lagged far behind those of other Chinese regions, limiting job prospects for local residents.

Turwinjan Tursun, a researcher with the Academy of Social Sciences of Xinjiang, said the difficulty of employment was especially true for the southern part of Xinjiang where the economy heavily relies on desert-oasis farming.

"There are little business in southern Xinjiang, and less large business, so the capacity for employment is really small," he said.

Two major programs were launched to address the issue last year, said Tian Wen, the top official of the regional government in charge of human resources management.

For one, thousands of jobless college graduates, some having stayed unemployed for years, were sent to job skill training in universities and companies in China's developed regions, all at the government's expense.

Additionally, each level of government and affiliated institutes were ordered to generate more jobs on the government's payroll to specifically hire members of jobless families.

Capable college graduates are also encouraged to start their own businesses.

The central government has also pledged to support Xinjiang's employment initiatives.

Official figures show that last year about 510,000 unemployed residents in urban Urumqi got jobs under the government programs. In the same year, about 2.31 million people in the countryside were given seasonal jobs like helping harvests at cotton-producing bases or were sent away to become migrant workers like Yao.

Both figures were significantly higher compared with the statistics in 2008 and before.

Xinjiang's unemployment rates are not made public.

Tian said the government was determined to "crack the hard nut of unemployment" especially in southern Xinjiang so more young people from rural areas would be encouraged to work in the infrastructure, real estate, and energy sectors.