Fears of further violent incidents, coupled with growing misunderstanding between the minority Han Chinese and the Uygurs, is taking its toll on businesses in Hotan, Xinjiang, a week after 18 people were killed in an attack on a police station in the city.
On the first weekend after the attack, streets around Unity Square in the heart of the city were almost deserted instead of being packed with the usual crowds. Nearly half a dozen shops - most owned by Han Chinese - at the Hotan Jade Article Market beside the square were shut.
Qu Chengbin, the owner of one of a handful of jade shops that were open, said he had suffered a significant loss since the violence.
'My shop used to make up to 150,000 yuan [HK$181,200] a day when throngs of visiting officials on trips to Hotan and tourists from either Western countries or Japan visited us,' Qu said. 'But now, after the incident, we seldom manage to reach 2,000 yuan a day.'
Qu said it was not difficult to quantify the incident's adverse impact on the industry with hundreds of visitors suddenly cancelling business or tourist trips, even though jade articles are a must-buy for those who visit Hotan.
As an important stop along the ancient Silk Road, Hotan originally became well known because of the high quality, in terms of whiteness and flawlessness, of jade it produced.
Qu said owners of businesses in the Uygur-populated region would never forget the burning to death of a Han family of six, who operated a grain and oil grocery store, by a group of Uygurs during riots in Urumqi on July 5, 2009. The riots claimed nearly 200 lives and more than 1,600 were injured.