The Danwei Model Worker Award is granted by Danwei editors to blogs that we feel are especially worth reading. See the full list for more fascinating material.

Far West China

Danwei has linked to Far West China many times in the past, but we've managed to overlook it in the lists of Model Workers we've published since the blog began in 2006.

For the second half of 2009, the Far West China blog was an indispensable source of on-the-ground information about life in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The periodic dispatches posted whenever blogger Josh Summers was able to find Internet access gave us glimpses inside the information black hole that consumed the region following the July riots.

Posts covered the gradual resumption of everyday life, including limited international telecommunications service. A selection:

• Life in Xinjiang after 7.5 (2009.10.19);
• Text Messaging Restored in Xinjiang (2010.01.17);
• A Quest to Discover International Calling in Xinjiang (2010.01.25);
• Xinjiang Goes Window Shopping but Can't Buy (2010.02.11);

Other posts focused on life in general in the region. Josh asked Do Uyghurs Celebrate Chinese New Year? (2010.02.22) and covered the situation with H1N1 in Xinjiang (2009.11.16).

Far West China also features a wealth of pictures of places ranging from mosques to local craftsmen to hi-tech installations to natural scenery.

The site recently received a makeover and continues to be updated with Xinjiang-related posts even though the author recently relocated to the United States.