Private museum tells stories of ethnic integration in Xinjiang

URUMQI - Having spent the last 30 years researching her family history, 64-year-old Li Hongxiu is almost an anthropologist.

Born in Qinghai province in Northwest China, Li moved to Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to marry her husband, Cao Zhongwei, in the 1970s. That was when she started to develop a keen interest in a special group of people called huerjia, meaning old local families in Chinese. Li eventually established a museum to commemorate them.

"My husband's grandfather is a descendant of huerjia. He told me many stories of the families, how they came here and not only survived but thrived," she said.