Reziwaguli Aimat (right) is seen at work at Jiashi Aodu Fruit Industry Co Ltd.

Hasaguli reads a book. The keen learner sets an example for many Uygur girls.

Tianshannet (By Cheng Qian)

They used to be village girls, toiling on the fields for enough food to feed themselves and their impoverished families. Urban life was so far a dream to them.

But these Uygur girls in Xinjiang were lucky enough to have the government help them with job opportunities in economic powerhouses such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

Several months of urban life changed them quickly. Speaking fluent Chinese and fashionably clad, they look like any of the local urban girls. Better still, entrepreneurship has been budding in their hearts and they now have lofty dream for their future life.

Tianshannet reporter Cheng Qian talks to some migrant Uygur workers.

‘I want to lead a city life, too’

Mayila Maimait has a dream: to be a city dweller.

Working at Huashun Toy Co in East China’s Jiaxing, the farmer-turned Uygur worker now tries to save every penny she could to fulfill that dream.

“I want to buy a flat in Kashi in Xinjiang, and take my parents there to enjoy urban life,” she said.

Talking about her experience in Jiaxing of coastal Zhejiang Province, Maimait said she became fairer and healthier in a few months, because “it’s more humid and the sun is not as scorching as in Xinjiang”.

Regular dining and rich diet also made the girl feel better.

“Back at home, I had one formal meal a day. My family is simply too poor,” she recalled. Now she has three meals a day and often has meat, a rarity at home.

Set up a business at home

After one-year work outside her hometown, Rezwaguli Aimat was totally different in her fellow men’s eyes: Confidence has replaced obedience and timidity in her.

Working in Jiaxing of East China’s Zhejiang Province, which is famous for its entrepreneurship, has helped horn the business savvy of the rural girl.

That’s why she didn’t want to handle family chores when she went back home from Jiaxing. “It’s so dull at home… cannot make friends or make money,” she said.

Now Aimat is working hard at the Jiashi Aodu Fruit Industry Co Ltd, trying to accumulate enough money to set up a handicraft shop.

Never too old to learn, let alone ‘we are so young’

Hasaguli always feels she has much to learn.

The girl left her hometown Teksi County after graduating from a high school to work in New Sunlight Apparel Co Ltd in Qingdao of East China’s Shandong Province.

She soon found most people there are well-educated, delivering her a sense of urgency to catch up.

Among many other things, Hasaguli like English most. She also has a strong interest in writing poems, which she often shares with her friends.