Economy suffers as racial tensions simmer in troubled Xinjiang

"Alas, I've had no work for five straight days," says Lao Guo, the owner of a gemstone processing workshop as he stands outside the well-known jade market which stands at the heart of the desert city of Hotan.

Lao says it is the worst situation he has ever known since he started his business on the banks of the Yurunkax River in the remote, troubled western province of Xinjiang .

For years, traders and travellers journeyed to Hotan to secure the precious jade the area had become known for, a particularly lucrative business as the price of jade shot up in the past decade, especially after 2008. But a recent outbreak of ethnic violence is keeping the visitors away from the city and its surrounding prefecture.

"The society is turning unstable now; full of confusion," says Lao Guo, a native of Henan province as he glares helplessly around the deserted market, now empty of almost all Han Chinese potential buyers after new violence erupted around the fourth anniversary of ethnic riots in the provincial capital Urumqi on July 5.

Nearby, another Han migrant, Ah Lin, says he is preparing to leave the jade market, the place where he built a business that made hundreds of thousands of yuan in annual profits over the past three years.

An influx of ethnic Han to the vast, impoverished land has generated resentment among the Muslim Uygurs who say the Beijing government's appointees in the west are restricting their culture and religion.