Located in Yizhou district, Hami city, Xingxingxia Passage is a significant landmark in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China. Positioned at the eastern gateway of Xinjiang and bordering Gansu Province, it holds the symbolic meaning that once one walks out of this passage towards the east, he/she is out of Xinjiang.

I am a Uygur. My hometown, Yimamu Town in Wushi County, Aksu City, is thousands of kilometers away from Xingxingxia Passage. In the past, our transportation was inconvenient, and our economic foundations were weak. Many people had never left Wushi County, and some had never even ventured beyond the boundaries of Yimamu Town. We were confined to our own small world, tending to a few acres of land and raising a few sheep. We believed that the Taushgan River, flowing in front of our houses, was the largest river in the world.

For a long time, it has been widely understood in Xinjiang, without a good proficiency in standard Chinese, one can never break free from the confinement of the "Xingxingxia Passage".

In 1982, I became the first person from our town to attend Xinjiang University. This marked the beginning of my journey out of Xingxingxia Passage. Later, I delved into business and traveled extensively across China, utilizing my fluency in standard Chinese to establish smooth communication with people from different regions. This realization led me to the idea of establishing an elementary school of standard Chinese in my hometown.

In 2003, I invested all my savings of 600,000 yuan ($82,000) to establish this elementary school. The opening of the school in August caused a sensation in the townships, resulting in an initial enrollment of 87 students.

However, due to the relatively unfavorable living conditions in our area, the school faced a severe shortage of teachers. Consequently, I had to recruit new teachers every semester before the start of the school year. Fortunately, the Chinese government's policy to support education in Xinjiang brought many teachers from other parts of the country to our school voluntarily. Additionally, the government provided land and financial support, significantly improving the school's operating conditions.

Over time, the school gained recognition and grew from 2 teachers and 87 students to 45 teachers and 681 students today. More than 80% of the 1,300 graduates have been admitted to junior high school classes in inland areas.(This refers to the practice of selecting outstanding students from Xinjiang to study in developed regions in central and eastern China at junior high and senior high school levels.) In 2016, Musa Turhun, one of the school's graduates, made history as the first student from Wushi County to attend Tsinghua University. Most gratifyingly, many students have become their parents' "little interpreters" and "little assistants" after mastering standard Chinese, introducing new concepts and lifestyles to Xinjiang's ethnic groups.

The development of the school paved the way for the creation of the "Pomegranate Standard Chinese" app, a joint effort between my school and the School of Information Engineering at Xinjiang University. This app has sparked the interest of many individuals in learning standard Chinese. Today, more and more people in Xinjiang are proactively learning standard Chinese and are willing to seek employment opportunities outside the region.

Nowadays, activities such as playing the waist drums, singing Peking Opera, practicing rice-sprout songs, and learning Chinese calligraphy have gained popularity at the school. Students are embracing the richness and charm of traditional Chinese culture. Every school season, parents from other townships visit the school with their children.

As an educator, I have witnessed the transformation of many children in Xinjiang, from being "sheep herders" and "cultivators" to becoming "university students" and "urban white-collar workers". This has further strengthened my determination to run an excellent elementary school for learning standard Chinese and to help more children break free from the confines of Xingxingxia Passage!

The author is Kurban Niyazi, headmaster of Elementary School of Standard Chinese Language, Yimamu Township, Wushi County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

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