Township's hope

Kurbannisa Matrozi, 26, grew up in the secluded oasis town of Daliyabuyi in the center of the Taklimakan Desert in Yutian county, Hotan. It is one of the smallest and most remote townships in Xinjiang.

Locals used to live primitive lifestyles and rarely attached much importance to education, but in 2013, Kurbannisa began studying at Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics, becoming her town's first university student.

She tells a story from her childhood, which motivated her to pursue further education.

When Kurbannisa was young, her mother opened a small grocery business, traveling 240 kilometers to the downtown area of Yutian once a year during summer to replenish her stocks. The one-way trip took her mother two days, as there were no decent roads in the desert.

"When I was young, Yutian county was my whole world. I thought the downtown area must be the most prosperous place on Earth," Kurbannisa said.

After she turned 7, one day she met a group of people dressed in a noticeably different way to her fellow villagers. They set up a tent, which surprised Kurbannisa.

"I just didn't understand how they could build a 'house' so quickly, as my family members had to mix bricks and mud when constructing their home," she said.

Kurbannisa was eager to discuss the "magic house" with these people, but she could not speak their language, Mandarin.

"They gave me a piece of dark, tasty candy, which I later learned was chocolate. I was also very curious about them brushing their teeth, because at that time, people living in Daliyabuyi didn't use toothpaste," she said.

In 2007, her curiosity about these visitors resulted in her studying hard to enter middle school in downtown Yutian, which she thought was "the most advanced place" to look for information about them.

That year, 35 students from Daliyabuyi attended the middle school. Three years later, Kurbannisa was the only one continuing her studies at a senior high school, while the others chose to attend vocational schools or return home to help graze animals.

"At the time, few people in Daliyabuyi would have believed such a primitive place could produce a university student," she said.

Although she had great difficulty catching up with her lessons in the first semester at senior high school, her ambition inspired her to study hard in the following years.

Her efforts paid off, and in 2013, Kurbannisa received an acceptance letter from Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics in Urumqi.

The day before she departed for Urumqi, her father slaughtered two sheep and hosted more than 100 villagers at a celebration.

"They all saw me as the hope of the entire township. I know that I'm its first university student, but I won't be the last," Kurbannisa said.

Standing 1.76 meters tall, she said this used to be a disadvantage, as teachers always made her sit in the back row in class.

However, after she went to Urumqi, she met an agent looking for models, and found part-time work in this field. "This job helped me become more confident about my height and appearance," she said.

Every time she introduced herself to new friends, Kurbannisa always mentioned her hometown, Daliyabuyi.

"Most people were impressed by my experience, with some calling me'a star from the desert'," she said. "I am so proud of my hometown."

In 2017, Kurbannisa started to post video clips of the scenery in Daliyabuyi on Douyin in an attempt to promote the town to more potential visitors. Within a year, she had attracted 150,000 users to the platform.

In 2019, she organized 10 households in setting up a tourism cooperative in Daliyabuyi to offer better services to visitors.

"Apart from offering tourists accommodations and food, the cooperative also organized campfire parties and other activities for them," Kurbannisa said.

In its first month, the cooperative earned more than 100,000 yuan ($15,510), according to Kurbannisa.

Earlier this year, she passed an exam to become a civil servant in the Yutian county culture and tourism bureau.

In April, Kurbannisa joined the fanghuiju campaign, in which civil servants are sent to grassroots communities to offer help to people from ethnic groups. She became a cadre-resident assisting rural vitalization in Daliyabuyi.

"I'm working to further improve infrastructure and tourism facilities in the town. I grew up here and it's time to pay back," she said.

There are 360 households in Daliyabuyi, where the main industries are animal husbandry and cultivation of the Cistanche deserticola, a rare parasitic medical plant.