Strangers on a train find common cause on journey of enlightenment

Every day at 2:01 pm, a train departs from the station in Urumqi, the regional capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. During its 28.5-hour journey south, it stops at all the major cities and counties in the south of the region, including Kashgar and Aksu, before arriving at Hotan, its final stop.

We rode the train on June 9, and saw people mixing freely in the carriages, irrespective of occupation or ethnic group. Many of the passengers discovered there was much they could learn from each other during the long trip.

One of them was Gulmina Yiliham, who was heading home to Hotan. It was the third and final part of a long journey home for the summer vacation from Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, where she has been studying quality control at a university for three years.