From the expansive dunes of the Taklamakan Desert to the snow-capped peaks of Tianshan, Chinese authorities are promoting the western Xinjiang region as a tourist idyll, welcoming travellers even as they send locals into internment camps.

The government has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities into re-education camps in the tightly-controlled region in China's northwest, but it has also created a parallel universe for visitors, who are only shown a carefully curated version of traditional customs and culture.