Chinese people in Kyrgyzstan have been growing in numbers since the late 1980s. 2008 police statistics showed 60,000 Chinese nationals living in the country. However, the 2009 census showed just 1,813 people who declared themselves to be of Chinese ethnicity. History During the Mongol Empire, Han Chinese were moved to Central Asian areas like Besh Baliq, Almaliq, and Samarqand by the Mongols where they worked as artisans and farmers. The Daoist Chinese master Qiu Chuji travelled through Kyrgyzstan to meet Genghis Khan in Afghanistan. As China and Kyrgyzstan are neighbouring countries, there is a long history of population movements between the lands that today make up their national territories. The Dungan people (Chinese-speaking Muslims from Northwest China) fled to Kyrgyzstan in 1877 after the failure of their uprising against the Qing Dynasty; they settled in Semirechie as well as the Ferghana Valley. In the early 20th century, Uyghurs, Dungans, and Han Chinese alike came to the Ferghana Valley as migrant workers in coal mines, cotton mills, and farms; some settled down permanently in Kyrgyzstan. The agricultural failures incurred during the 1950s Great Leap Forward spurred many people from Xinjiang to flee to the Soviet Union, including Kyrgyzstan, to escape hardships in China. However, as the Sino-Soviet split worsened, the border was closed and such migration made impossible. Migration would begin again in the late 1980s, centred on Chüy Region, Bishkek and its surroundings; people from Xinjiang would come to rent land, and grow vegetables. Others came as cross-border traders, selling Chinese alcoholic beverages and buying up clothing—especially coats made from Karakul sheep pelts—for sale in Xinjiang. In the early 2000s, the majority of PRC nationals in Kyrgyzstan were of Uyghur ethnicity, but since then, an increasing number of Han Chinese have been arriving. Kyrgyzstan and other post-Soviet states are popular destinations for people from Xinjiang because they offer the opportunity to learn Russian, which has become important in urban job markets such as Urumqi. Recent migrants state they chose Kyrgyzstan as their destination, rather than join the large numbers of Chinese people in Russia or in Kazakhstan because Kyrgyzstan is cheaper, and because they perceive public safety as being better in Kyrgyzstan than in Russia where there have been cases of attacks on migrant workers. Business and employment Chinese traders often employ local Dungans as assistants. Kyrgyz university students of all ethnicities also often seek out employment with Chinese traders,