China locked down the far-western former Silk Road city of Kashgar on Tuesday in preparation for the passage of the Olympic torch relay through the sensitive region populated by ethnic-minority Muslim Uighurs. Shops lining Wednesday's torch route were shuttered and police stood guard on every street corner.
Soldiers and fire-fighters patrolled the main square of a city seen as the heart of Islam in China's oil-rich border region of Xinjiang. "Nobody is allowed to watch the torch relay tomorrow unless you are being organised by your work unit. I feel a lot of regret," said Chen Guangsheng, a Han Chinese resident of Kashgar who said her home was along the route. "The police are coming to my house tonight to inspect it and to register everybody living there."
Windows must be closed and residents were not allowed outside on their balconies during the relay, Chen added. The torch relay ahead of the Games opening in Beijing on August 8 was meant to be a symbol of national unity and pride for China, but on its international leg it was dogged by anti-government protests.