In keeping with a China Blog tradition, I'll sign off with a photo from the bureau window. Only this time there's no snarl of cars to be seen. Amazing how a few tanks (they're practicing today for the Oct. 1 National Day parade) can clear out traffic.

We've had a good run, but alas, the China Blog is indeed shutting down. Come visit us elsewhere on Time.com. You'll find most of our stories on the World and Magazine pages, ie the current issue of Time Asia includes the China 60th anniversary cover package. And if you want to respond to any of our magazine stories, send your letters to asialetters@timeasia.com. Until next time!

All good things must come to an end and, sadly, that applies to the China Blog too, which will shutter at the end of today. I and my colleagues have thoroughly enjoyed doing this (mostly) and equally been interested to get feedback from readers. There  was a lot of puerile drivel, too (you know who you are!), of course, but on the whole it was illuminating to get such instant reaction to our posts.

Blogs are by their nature ephemeral and this one no less than others. Happily they are also in a sense Buddhist in that they can be reincarnated in different forms. That may happen to the China Blog at some point down the line but in the meantime it's ave atque vale or 一路顺风!

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei underwent cranial surgery this week in Munich to treat lingering pain he's suffered since being punched by a Chengdu police officer last month. (He's posted pre- and post-surgery photos on his Twitter page.) Ai, who organized a campaign to tally student deaths in last year's Sichuan earthquake, was detained with other activists while in Chengdu to speak at the trial of Tan Zuoren. Tan, an editor and environmentalist who had recorded the deaths of students in collapsed schools, is charged with "inciting subversion of state power."

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Heads up: here's my essay in this week's TIME Asia, about why, after nearly 100 years, China is suddenly honoring my great-grandfather.

It has been a tense few days in Urumqi, the western Chinese city that saw renewed unrest last week, two months after rioting left nearly 200 dead. Late Friday the government said five people had been killed during the previous week's unrest, including two "innocent civilians." On Saturday it announced that Urumqi's Communist Party Secretary Li Zhi and the Xinjiang regional police chief were dismissed. On Sunday Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan declared the government will send more than 7,000 officials to Urumqi neighborhoods to calm citizens angered by the recent syringe attacks. And to round out events, the state-run Xinhua news service reported today that people in Urumqi are playing badminton and practicing Latin dancing.

I have no doubt that some folks are enjoying themselves in Urumqi parks today, but I question whether the city has "returned to normal." A few days after the July rioting most of Urumqi appeared as if nothing had happened. If you traveled through the north of the city, far from where tens of thousands of paramilitaries divided the Han neighborhoods from the main Uighur district in the south, nothing seemed unusual. But from talking with people, and seeing the readiness with which Urumqi's Han residents gathered on the streets then and now, it's clear things are clearly not right. With so many Han residents killed at the hands of Uighur rioters in July, there's a sense of an unpaid blood debt. With mixed messages on the schedule for trials of riot suspects, and a series of new syringe attacks that Wang says were aimed at the city's majority Han population, tension in the city will only continue. Perhaps that's now considered normal in the Xinjiang capital.

The details of recent violence in Urumqi are surprising, but the news of further unrest in the capital of China's northwestern Xinjiang region isn't. State media reported that police arrested 15 people this week for attacks using syringes.

Possibly in response to those stabbings, residents of the city gathered today to protest poor security conditions, the Associated Press reported:

Han resident Zhao Jianzhuang said he had joined a large crowd of protesters at a downtown intersection who were being blocked by riot police from marching on central People's Square, less than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away.

He said people were pushing and shoving police and some in the crowd had been beaten. Participants were shouting slogans including "The government is useless," and calling for the dismissal of the regional Communist Party boss Wang Lequan, a noted hard-liner and ally of President Hu Jintao.

On July 5 members of the Uighur ethnic minority rioted in the city, attacking majority Han. Two days later thousands of Han gathered to carry out revenge attacks. Paramilitary forces were able to keep the revenge mobs from the Uighur quarter, preventing another bloodbath. But some Uighurs were seriously beaten and possibly killed that day. All told the July violence left nearly 200 dead and more than 1,600 injured.

By dispatching thousands of security forces in the city, the government showed it could prevent further mass attacks. But the tension is still evident. When I was in Urumqi in July Uighurs were leaving the city for towns like Kashgar, with larger Uighur populations. (Uighurs make up only about 15% of Urumqi.) The Han majority are still angry about the deadly rioting. While trials are planned for more than 200 suspects in the July attacks, there have been conflicting reports about when they will take place.

With preparations for Oct. 1 celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic now underway, authorities are even more wary of any disturbances. The official strategy has been to focus local outrage away from Urumqi's Uighur population and toward Rebiya Kadeer, a U.S.-based Uighur rights activist who China blames for instigation the violence. But there's still plenty anger at home for them to worry about.