Women in enveloping dresses and head scarves, members of the Muslim Uighur minority, queued in Urumqi to buy string beans. Han Chinese girls in short skirts and holding parasols nibbled on ice creams as they strolled in city streets.

Just a day earlier such scenes would have been inconceivable in this city as fear of attack by people from either community seeking vengeance kept people in their homes.

With tens of thousands of soldiers and paramilitary in town to prevent renewed rioting, people are starting to feel more confident.

But trust may be more important than confidence. Is there some way for the authorities to restore trust in a society where animosity between Uighur and Han has resulted in so much bloodshed?

Uighur resentment of Han settlers from other parts of China has been simmering for years. The speed of the influx of Han Chinese has accelerated in recent years as the Government has promoted a “Go West” policy intended to attract more workers, bigger investment and greater prosperity to less-developed regions far from the coastal boom.

Many Uighurs feel that they have been left behind, that job opportunities are going to Han.

Many Han Chinese wonder why Uighurs are not more grateful for the rapid rise in their standard of living in recent years, even if some have failed to keep pace with the rising incomes of the Han.

They also feel that a family planning policy that allows minorities such as Uighurs to have two children, compared with just one for Han urban residents, is unfair.

The Communist Party has done its utmost to blame the riot on outside forces, small groups of extremists or separatists, and to avoid any suggestion of divisions along ethnic lines.

The question is whether they believe their own propaganda. Or will they try to introduce policies aimed at soothing the less well-off Uighurs without angering the Han — now a majority in a region where 60 years ago they accounted for just 6 per cent of the population?

If the lessons of last year’s unrest in Tibet are anything to go by, then any such changes are unlikely. This may well not be the last time that ethnic riots rock Xinjiang.

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