loneliness in the desert? a sense of isolation? no. far less so than jinzhou. but somehow, in this semi-metropolis, this sea of han and uighur faces, that old anonymity is present, no longer people shouting 'hello', no longer the stares that used to follow me everywhere I went. Do I miss the attention? Is that what it is? Or are the soulful drums of Xinjiang echoing through me?