Nomads settling down to better lives

URUMQI: Dambo and his wife Saka have done what they never thought they would in their lifetimes - settle down in a brand-spanking new bungalow.

"As nomads, we never stayed in any one place for very long because we needed to find suitable pastures for our cattle," said father-of-six Dambo, 63. "But now we can enjoy the convenience of our new home."

The Mongolian couple's house is part of a pilot program of 80 new homes in the mountainous Hoboksar Mongol autonomous county of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where authorities have spent 8 million yuan ($120,000) on the project to house the poor and needy nomad population.