Hotel in China fined for accepting Muslim guests

Authorities in the southern province of Guangdong have fined a hotel in the border city of Shenzhen for breaking a ban on ethnic minority Uyghur guests.

Chinese police have reportedly ordered hotels across the country to ban bookings of visitors from the north-western region of Xinjiang, who are predominantly Muslims.

An employee at the hotel in Shenzhen’s Lo Wu district, confirmed the fine to Radio Free Asia: “According to rules set by the local police station, we had to pay a fine for accepting a guest from Xinjiang,”

“Security has been much tighter now that it’s the 19th party congress, and there is a ban on people from Xinjiang,” she said, adding that the hotel had been fined 15,000 yuan (U.S. $2,260) for breaking the rule.

“I know that you can’t generalize about an entire group of people, and that any group has bad people in it, but we are being told [by police] that we can’t have guests from Xinjiang.”