MCDONELL: China's far west has long been a place of mystery, isolation, great beauty and, at times, threat. Where we're heading politics, religion and identity have been combining to produce a murderous result. Hundreds have died over the past year following violent clashes. The Government blames the bloodshed on independence-seeking ethnic Uighurs who've lived in this tough landscape for generations. We're delving into one of the most sensitive matters in China today.

We pass the old border post and enter Xinjiang. Next to Pakistan and Afghanistan, it's more than one and a half million square kilometres, mostly made up of dramatic sprawling desert with the occasional oasis.

Immediately you come across paramilitary police and SWAT teams — cars pulled over, identification documents registered. Reporters haven't been able to get to the bottom of events here because of the many places to which we can't get access. We're attempting to cross the province to try and find out what's been causing the tension and the killing.

President Xi Jinping's China is becoming more hardline right across the country. Here it's extreme, though some would say with good reason. Last year a team of jihadists from Xinjiang planned to strike an iconic location. They were after a shocking image to go round the World.

A car was driven into a crowd in front of Beijing's Tiananmen Gate, killing and maiming as it went. Said to be a suicide mission, the vehicle burst into flames with a Uighur man, his wife and mother-in-law all inside. Yet the majority of violence has happened inside Xinjiang. Just about every month there's a new report of a police station being raided or civilians as the target of bombings or stabbings. Security forces have also fired on crowds of angry Uighurs. This is being motivated by training videos from nearby countries — according to the Chinese Government.

Neighbourhoods here tend to form along ethnic lines and our first city is no exception. It's known as Hami in Chinese or Kumul in Uighur. In the 1950s Han Chinese made up 11% of the population in this province. Now, after waves of government sponsored migration, they account for around half of those living here. Some critics say it's a deliberate attempt to outnumber the locals.

For us, it won't be long until Chinese security is on our tail. So we head straight to a predominantly Uighur street. People come here to buy the traditional clothing that's still popular in everyday attire. Machines have replaced hand weaving but the designs have been passed down for generations.

"Is this your shop?"

MAN: "Yes it is".

MCDONELL: "What's your shop for?"

MAN: "We're mainly making things for Uighurs".

MCDONELL: "Like clothes?"

MAN: "Right. This is for clothes".

MCDONELL: This Uighur family business has benefitted from an $18,000 grant from the government and we're told the town is getting more prosperous. But what sort of a place is it becoming?

"For example, if many more Han Chinese people moved here, is that a problem for you?"

MAN: "If you ask this kind of question it's hard to answer it. The Party should answer these questions. You should speak to the Communist party. It's not okay for us ordinary people to speak about this. We would be committed a crime".

MCDONELL: The Uighurs are Turkic speaking Sunni Muslims who've been ruled by local warlords, Chinese emperors and Mongolian raiders with only brief tastes of independence. They're a welcoming people.

MAN AT ROADSIDE SHOP: "It tastes good. It's part of our culture".

MCDONELL: [with food] "Oh it's so hot! Ah, ah, ah... [tries a piece] it's good though... it's good when it's fresh. [to man] It's really cool, nice". [laughs]

These days if a Uighur travels beyond their hometown this draws the immediate attention of the police. So it doesn't take long for a foreign TV crew to be well and truly on the radar of the local security apparatus.

POLICE: "Go to the security check point. Co-operate with us and accept our check".

MCDONELL: "Why?"

POLICE: "A routine check. Vehicles from other cities need to be checked".

MCDONELL: Police say we'll need special permission to be here working. In this country you can feel it when you're about to be followed quite a bit. We're allowed to leave and though the stretches between towns are long, the roadblocks ahead have been told we're coming. We're pulled over and our car is confiscated. We have to more all our gear into a police provided vehicle. They claim our driver doesn't have the right paperwork to ferry people around and want us to move onto the next town without him.

[to police] "Listen to me. We are definitely not going to Turpan".

They seem to have him on a technicality but when they tell us that our translator has to go with them as well as a witness, we decide to draw a line.

[to police] "No way. No way. Really, no way".

POLICE: "He needs to cooperate with us".

MCDONELL: "No way. Look, we'll all go together, OK?"

They cave in and allow our translator to travel with us after he provides a statement.

Our next town Shan Shan or Piqan in Uighur sits at the foot of enormous sand dunes. They spread for thousands of kilometres and would be dangerous to get lost in. It's more than 40 degrees here so I go to buy some beer... with five government minders following me. We're told they're here to "help" and will be "helping" every time we leave our hotel.

Sure enough next morning when we try to leave and film, there's a welcoming committee on hand. No need for a taxi we're told because our official friends will take us.

OFFICIAL FRIEND: "We have a car".

MCDONELL: "Why do we have to use your car?"

OFFICIAL FRIEND: "Because we have to accompany you and protect you".

MCDONELL: "Why?"

OFFICIAL FRIEND: "You are a foreign guest".

MCDONELL: "What does that mean? What are you afraid of?"

OFFICIAL FRIEND: "I'm not afraid of anything".

MCDONELL: They say we're in breach of procedures for not having formally applied to conduct interviews here.

[to official friend] "If we are walking along and meet someone — just an ordinary person — and I want to interview them, and they agree to accept an interview is there a problem with that?"

OFFICIAL FRIEND: "They won't agree to an interview".

MCDONELL: Yet apparently the special procedures don't extend to filming the scenery - so soon we're off to see this town's most famous attraction. These massive dunes used to attract travellers in much greater numbers. Yet many have been scared off by the recent tensions. Away from the cameras, travel companies say numbers have halved amongst foreigners with a drop off of up to 90% amongst Chinese tourists. Even this is a sensitive subject.

[sitting on dune] "We'd love to be able to speak to both Uighurs and Han Chinese about what it's like living here but that is absolutely not going to be permitted by local government officials. The funny thing is if you were able to do those interviews you'd get all manner of views. Some people would be unhappy with the situation, especially Uighurs but, you know, you'd get others who think that there is development here and the place is improving".

Day three in Xinjiang and we're being driven to the next place by our minders. They're keen to make us somebody else's responsibility and don't really care what we do, as long as we're not doing it in their jurisdiction.

We arrive in Turpan and can barely leave the car before a new team of smiling officials is upon us. Here, even by Chinese standards, the tailing will be remarkable.

[in foyer of hotel] "And this is interesting. Those guys have been following us... here they come again. We're about to get in the lift. You'll notice our friends are just even in the foyer of this hotel following us around".

And sure enough... in they come. One... two... and three.

At any time of the day or night, the corridor of our hotel floor is like a busy street with the same 10 or 11 young men desperately trying to act as if it's normal to hang around outside our rooms.

[to one young man outside room] "Are you looking at the scenery?"

YOUNG MAN: "We are on holidays".

MCDONELL: "Really, holidays".

One man leaves his surveillance notes on our movements where we can spot them. Number 1 went into number 2's room. Number 2 back to his room. Number 3 and number 4 went out together — and so on.

[to same young men in corridor some hours later] "You still here? 24 hours in the same location is a bit strange isn't it?"

It might seem ridiculous to try and deny that these men have been sent to follow us, but our top shelf party loyalist will at least give it a go.

FEMALE PARTY LOYALIST: "I'm not clear about this. They're following you?"

MCDONELL: "Yes. Yes".

FEMALE PARTY LOYALIST: "It's only us, my boss...".

MCDONELL: "Come on, you know. They're over there, you know".

FEMALE PARTY LOYALIST: "They're just guests".

MCDONELL: "They're not guests".

We also ask for help to line up an interview with an imam and to our great surprise one is organised. The "guests" from our hotel follow us there in convoy as well.

We meet Imam Ahmed Rozy and he welcomes us into his 90 year old mosque.

In Xinjiang the government keeps a close eye on religious institutions and can veto appointments. In this province veils for women and beards for men are actively discouraged by the authorities. We ask if people are free to practice their religion.

IMAM ROZY: "They have freedom. They have freedom".

MCDONELL: We also ask why so much killing has occurred recently, especially Uighurs killing Han Chinese.

IMAM ROZY: "They don't talk to us, so I don't know why they are doing it — but it's clear that killing innocent people is wrong".

MCDONELL: Could it be because some Uighurs are not satisfied with their lives?

IMAM ROZY: "Again... I am not sure".

MCDONELL: A team of government officials records every word the Imam says. His can be a dangerous job. An imam will get into big trouble if he questions the Communist Party's handling of things but being too close to the authorities can also be deadly. In July this year, in another city, an imam seen as too pro government was stabbed to death in a political assassination. We ask why this might have happened.

IMAM ROZY: "I'm not sure. I don't know why they did it. Islam asks us to accept our fate. Only God knows what happens in the future. So I cannot say with certainty that such a thing will or will not happen to me".

MCDONELL: This imam certainly has a difficult path to navigate.

We found a new driver and, on the road to the regional capital, we pass some of the historical and economic reasons for wanting to hang on to this territory. On Xinjiang's highways, cars are now being stopped for full airport-style bag scans. The government's message, you think you can pressure us? Try this for pressure. Who are you? Where are you going? How do you know each other?

Soon we're in Urumqi, a prosperous city with Uighurs in the minority and very Chinese characteristics. Most people you talk to seem to like living here, but a few months ago the calm was smashed to pieces.

[walking along street] "You can't really tell now but this street was once the site of a morning market. All along here there were stalls selling food and the locals would come out to buy their breakfast. In May this year that's exactly what they were doing when a couple of cars pulled up. It's not quite clear what happened next — but those inside have either thrown explosive devices out of the vehicles or set off bombs inside the cars — 39 passers-by were killed, 4 of the bombers died as well though one was captured. It was a bloody attack which sent shockwaves through this community".

POLICEMAN AINIDING MEMETIMIN: "They are thugs. They've lost their feelings as human beings. They're brainwashed by extreme religious thoughts. They actually don't have their own thoughts. Deluded by religious extremism they performed these inhuman acts. A normal person wouldn't raise a butcher's knife to the elderly and children".

MCDONELL: Uighur policeman Ainiding Memetimin took the dead and wounded from the bombed market place to hospital. In a largely Han Chinese area, most of those killed were elderly people.

POLICEMAN AINIDING MEMETIMIN: "My tears were running down. I hate them. I can't understand how someone could do this sort of thing. Can we still call them human beings?"

MCDONELL: Many Han Chinese whose parents and grandparents were from Urumqi seem genuinely bewildered that social harmony is cracking apart here. The government's solution is integration. In one town Uighurs and Han Chinese are being offered generous cash handouts if they intermarry.

Teaching in the Uighur language is disappearing in schools everywhere and it's almost non-existent at universities. But to really test the pulse of Xinjiang you have to head to the south — across the Taklamakan Desert. In places like Hotan, Uighurs are still in the majority. Here many unsophisticated but brutal attacks have meant a heavier security presence than in the north.

In the south the internet is at times totally blocked and phone texting prevented. Here we briefly shake our considerable escort and get our only opportunity to speak to a group of Uighurs without a dozen police and other officials intimidating them. They're farmers seeking work in construction or as seasonal fruit pickers.

UIGHUR MAN #1: "Most of the people here are not married yet and getting work can affect their marriage. So we worry about these things".

MCDONELL: And what do they think is causing the tension here?

UIGHUR MAN #2: "We can't talk about it. We can't say anything about it".

MCDONELL: "So even here when we're in a crowd and once you ask people about the violence, what's caused it, the crowd here doesn't want to talk about it. They're happy to talk about their lives but they feel obviously it's a bit too dangerous to speak about these things — even if they're not involved — even just to give an opinion is something that could really get you into trouble".

As for possible solutions?

UIGHUR MAN #1: "We don't know, we can't talk about it. We can't...".

UIGHUR MAN #3: "If there are fifteen different ethnic groups here, the treatment of the Uighurs is the worst. It's the worst".

MCDONELL: The reason we've been hindered is to prevent comments just like these getting out.

UIGHUR MAN #1: "There's pressure on Uighurs. Talking about it gets us into trouble. We will get blacklisted".

UIGHUR MAN #3: "They say "you are all equal" but that's a lie. Injustice is everywhere here but we can't talk about it".

MCDONELL: And when might the violence end?

UIGHUR MAN #1: "Only God knows. It depends on the situation. We can't talk about it".

UIGHUR MAN #3: "There's no freedom here".

MCONDELL: We decide to visit a village in which nearly 100 people were killed this July. Other foreign journalists have not been allowed into Alixihu.

[in car] "We're driving now to the town which has seen the largest recent violent incident and the numbers are quite staggering. According to official reports, amongst the passers-by, 2 Uighurs were killed and 35 Han Chinese killed. Amongst the attackers, 59 were shot dead by police and another 215 captured by the local authorities. Now this has been labelled like other incidents as a terrorist attack but with numbers like this, it doesn't seem like what you would call by any definition a terrorist type attack. It sounds like some sort of a grievance that's gotten out of hand and a mob has just attacked the local police station and the local government offices".

We drive into the small village well off the main road. Most of the killing was around this government building. We're prepared to hear anything that officials have to say about what happened. We turn to make another pass and our car is pulled over.

[by the side of the road] "Well here we are. It doesn't look like we're going to be able to go right down into this town, but it's interesting, it's not a very big place. What prompts 270 people to... ".

OFFICIAL: [jumps out of car and interrupts] "Your journalist card. [to camera] Wait a minute".

MCDONELL: "I'm not doing an interview".

OFFICIAL: "Do you have your journalist card?"

MCDONELL: "Of course I do".

OFFICIAL: "Your journalist's card".

MCDONELL: "Why do you need it?"

OFFICIAL: "We need to see if you really are a journalist".

MCDONELL: "I'm a journalist". [hands card to official]

OFFICIAL: "Hello". [shakes Stephan's hand]

MCDONELL: "Hello. We would like to know what happened here in July".

OFFICIAL: "Well, could you show me your interviewing permit please?"

MCDONELL: "I don't have an interviewing permit".

OFFICIAL: "Without an interviewing permit you are conducting illegal interviews".

MCONDELL: Without the mysterious interviewing permit we supposedly require, we must leave none the wiser about these events. We make our way along one last long stretch of road — heading for our final destination. Then on day 10, we reach Kashgar, the city seen by many as the cultural home of the Uighurs. Centuries ago, travellers who made it across the desert would have eyed this place with relief.

Upon making it all the way to these crumbling alleyways, we must ask ourselves what we've garnered from the trip. Well in short, it's a complex and possibly deteriorating situation with many answers yet to come.

[walking down alleyway] "Much of the discussion about the violent clashes in Xinjiang has revolved around the question of whether or not they've been caused by international jihadist groups encouraging this behaviour or local disaffection following government policy on say beards or veils. But there's another theory being put about by some academics, that this is really the inevitable result of what you might call a colonial type policy, where one culture subjugates another and dominates it, that this causes general unhappiness in the community and it doesn't take much for it to rise to the top.

Over the past year, Uighurs said to be involved in attacks or planning attacks have been rounded up by the dozen for execution. But the crackdown has also taken in moderate critics. Beijing based Uighur economist Ilham Tohti was given life imprisonment last week after he simply criticised government policies in Xinjiang.

If even reasoned analysis is not allowed, some China watchers are warning that Beijing could be pushing the Uighurs straight into the hands of religious extremists.

Travelling to this historic city it's fair to say that we've been harassed unrelentingly all the way. But at the end of our journey, we can put Xinjiang behind us. Yet for people who live here, this is their daily life experience and there's no indication that that's about to change in a hurry.