Uygur student builds future in capital while studying for advanced degree

In the nearly two years she has spent in Beijing, Yihebale Ilham has had most of her clothes mailed to the capital from her hometown in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region as she didn't want to waste even a moment on shopping.

Yihebale, known as Bale to her colleagues, arrived in Beijing in January 2013 to work and study.

The cultural company the 24-year-old works for runs a media park in a suburb of Beijing, next to the campus of the Communication University of China.