Hong Kong student Angel Lau Yin-kwan, 16, has wanted to visit China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region for some time, to learn more about the birthplace of her favourite mainland Chinese actress, Dilraba Dilmurat. Before embarking on a seven-day northern Xinjiang learning tour in early July under the Solar Project, organised by public broadcaster RTHK, Lau thought the region was mostly grassland and that locals rode horses as a means of transport. Lau was astonished by the well-developed...