Women's startups bloom in Xinjiang

URUMQI - Gulnisa Ali's five-person tailor shop has grown into a company with more than 50 employees.

"My shop expanded from 30 square meters to some 500 square meters in just five years. That's an incredible change," said Ali, manager of a company that produces ethnic costumes in Turpan, a tourism-driven city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Born into a poor rural family of six children, Ali got her sewing skills from her mother. Her grandmother and great-grandmother were also skilled seamstresses.