By Xinhua writer Yu Fei

BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- When Chen Xuanbo, 40, an ethnic Han official, was sent to work in Uygur-dominated southern Xinjiang, he thought he was going to a place "too dangerous to fall asleep."

Chen left the Xinjiang capital city Urumqi for southern Xinjiang on March 5, several days after the Kunming terrorist attack that killed 29 people and injured more than 140.

The attack was proved to be organized and committed by the separatists from Xinjiang.

"It would be a lie if I said I had no fear," Chen says.

Before his departure, friends and relatives warned him repeatedly to stay safe, while his ten-year-old daughter bought him a pair of sneakers because "he would walk a lot there."

Several months after Chen came to Azkhan village, in Atux City, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, everyone in the village knows him.

"Many worries were unfounded. My daughter gave me the most useful thing," Chen says. "The mulberries are ripe. I can pick them and eat them under the trees and feel very safe."

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) decided in February to send 200,000 officials to work in grassroots units, mostly in southern Xinjiang, over three years.

The project aims to ease ethnic tensions and counter the infiltration by "Eastern Turkistan" terrorist forces.

"Personally, I support this project," says Chen, who works in the regional industry and commerce bureau.

"Southern Xinjiang has been isolated from the outside world for a long time. The Uygur and Han ethnic groups don't communicate with each other, and 'Eastern Turkistan' terrorists have become rampant. If the situation continues, misunderstandings between Uygurs and Hans will be exaggerated."

He began to write his online diary as soon as he arrived. He has posted more than 80,000 characters and over 10,000 photos to show the region through his eyes.

Most entries are about his daily work such as his visits to families, farms and schools, and they have fascinated readers on Tianya and Tiexue, two popular online forums in China.

"Many people call southern Xinjiang the 'home of terrorists.' I refute this. I didn't really know much about southern Xinjiang before I came here. Now I want to tell the world about it," Chen says.

Azkhan, a mainly agricultural village, has a population of 3,563 in 638 families, with 1,470 mu (98 hectares) of farmland. The average annual income in 2013 was 5,252 yuan (about 846 U.S. dollars), according to Chen.The village is on the outskirts of Atux City, which is famous for its shrewd business people. Locals buy silk products from east China to sell in the region and do business in central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan.

More than 500 residents have passports, and traveling abroad is common. "Some are very rich and some are very poor. They all like to have the exteriors of their houses sumptuously decorated," he says.