The rise of intolerance

Extremists are threatening the traditional way of life of the Uygur ethnic group in China's western regions, report Cui Jia in Urumqi and Gao Bo in Aksu prefecture.

As he walked along the narrow corridors packed with patients, Amir Ali, a physician and director of the Aksu Hospital of Traditional Uygur Medicine, said he's noticed a marked change in the way the local women are dressing recently.

Aksu is a predominantly Muslim prefecture in the south of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and Amir said that in the past 12 months, an increasing number of female patients and visitors have arrived at the hospital wearing the niqab, the full-face black veil favored by ultraconservative Muslims, instead of their usual colorful headscarfs bearing traditional Uygur patterns.