> you can probably find some Uighur Tibetan people on Chinese social media like douban.com
The heavily surveilled and censored Chinese social media, that are filled with paid PRC posters? Sounds much more trustworthy than the Times.
Social media may be subject to surveillance and censorship, but that doesn't stop people from discussing openly about posts being "harmonized" or certain keywords being "sensitive". There's no reason to suppose that finding genuine Uyghurs or Tibetans on there would be impossible.
This guy has traveled in the Xinjiang/Xizang area and might give you some basic idea what that region is like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5t2sLWuYyc (the first video of his travel within China videos, there's no playlist I think)
If you know enough Mandarin, you can probably find some Uighur Tibetan people on Chinese social media like douban.com
Also some westerners live in the Lijiang / Dali region where there are many Tibetans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijiang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dali_City
I've never been but heard they are nice to visit.