Shopkeepers are considering pulling up stakes and leaving Machu, a once-isolated town in northwestern China that was one of the worst hit by Tibetan rioting last month.
A sense of tension and intimidation was palpable among Tibetans, Hui Muslims and Han Chinese as journalists toured the main shopping streets on Thursday. Some shops and government buildings were gutted and charred and many had broken windows.
Historically Tibetan Machu, surrounded by vast grasslands, is in one of the areas that was worst hit by famines and purges during the rule of Mao Zedong and foreigners have only been allowed to visit since 1999.
Rioting flared in the town on March 16, the weekend after riots in the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, which Tibetans attacked Hui and Han businesses and mosques.
The roads were only reopened last week.
Tibetan shopkeepers said they are repeatedly visited and interrogated by police while locals said groups of young Tibetan men, who they said may be from the neighbouring Sichuan, sometimes appeared in the late afternoon, frightening the Hui and Han shopkeepers.
"It's because they don't want us here. They want to force us to go home," said Ma Haimei, a Hui clad in a black headscarf, as a rain and snow storm rolled towards the town along the Yellow River.
She said she fled her supermarket as rioters set it on fire, while her husband was beaten outside. They have sent their two children away for safety, but have also installed a new metal gate and a worker was starting to clear the wreckage.
"I'll wait three months and then decide whether to stay. It depends whether the government is successful in restoring order."
Li Huaiquan, a Han merchant, said his wife had left for Xiahe and he planned to leave as well.
"But I have paid my rent through June and have a deposit too. So for the time being, I'll sell stuff - if it happens again, I will take the goods home quickly," said Li, who sells ethnic decorations. He was standing in a shop strewn with glass and overturned showcases.
A Tibetan businessman also said he was also planning to leave "because the atmosphere is not good".
