[Photo provided to China Daily]

Sit back, close your eyes, open your ears and brace yourself for Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region as you've never imagined it.

By all means, if you want to hold on to those images of stunning scenery and a unique culture and to let the fragrance of its food dance in your mind, feel free.

But let all of that slip to the back of your mind as you turn up the volume on your ears and wait for an amazing show to begin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world of Xinjiang Uygur …rap music."

Perhaps we should not be surprised that a musical form born in the 1970s in the melting pot that is New York should eventually wash over distant Xinjiang, a region bubbling with cultural diversity and that has eight other countries, including India, Mongolia and Pakistan, dancing on its doorsteps.

Out of this has come a form of music that would not feel out of place in the Bronx, but that has enough of Urumqi and the rest of the region in it for it to sound and feel distinctly different.