Xinjiang, China, As A Place To Go.

I've not done business in Xinjiang or even been there, although it is "on the list" to visit one day.
I've considered it for a while, but not very long. For one, despite for "Beijing doing its darndest to encourage", the place has an image problem (deserved or not, I don't know) with nasty social unrest and generally being in the middle of nowhere. Add this to my --admittedly limited-- experiences with mirage encouragement ("come to XYZ city, we're high-tech, oozing with qualified staff and we'll give you housing, cash, tax breaks, whatever you need" --- sounds to good to be true and it usually is --- upon actual arrival: "oops, sorry, you don't qualify for cash or tax breaks, but if you yourself buy a house at our hugely inflated prices, we'll throw in an expired discount coupon for Ikea"; high-tech means there is cold running water in the hallway; and oozing qualified staff means two guys who speak enough English to ask you "where are you from?").
While in my industry and specialization, I could work virtually anywhere as long as there is (even occasional) electricity and internet access, making 'nowhere' an option, pretty much everything else I'd need (customers, suppliers, staff) is in places like Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi or maybe Shenzhen/Hongkong. So the one advantage of lower(-ish) cost is immediately offset by increased logistics costs and accompanying schedule blow-outs.
On the other hand, I have been told that Xinjiang is the one place in China where you might have a chance of obtaining camel steaks, and that would almost be worth it. Almost.
However, Beijing being Beijing, it would be interesting to see what might happen in a few years from now. Shenzhen was not much to speak of 30 years ago and look at it now....

Thanks for the mention, Dan!

@Weird Shanghai - I can tell you from experience that living in Xinjiang really isn't that dodgy. Sure, there are dodgy parts of town, but the same can be said for most any city in China (or the world for that matter). Do you (or did you) feel threatened while doing business there?

@Michael V - I know a couple of American guys who set up a furniture factory in an "economic zone" north of Urumqi. Sure the red tape was difficult to manage, but they're up and running - electricity, internet and everything! Logistics is a problem that the government is obviously throwing money at. Railroads, highways, and flights are being added on a daily basis and I won't be surprised if by 2020 logistics isn't even an issue. As for camel steaks...good luck! I lived there 4 years and not once at camel meat.

Interesting post! Urumqi and Xinjiang in general don't get enough attention in my opinion, unless it's for something negative.

But about the safety issue, the tour company I work for organizes tours that go through Xinjiang (so I guess we factor into the tourism business there) and all the groups that have come back since last year haven't mentioned feeling unsafe there at all.

I'm planning to go to Urumqi soon, as my boss has been and really liked the place.