From balmy backwater to bustling internet bazaar

It used to be hard for Altumkhz Salam, a fashion-conscious Uygur woman, to find clothes that matched her dress sense, and even harder to get her hands on them, because she lives in one of China's remotest areas.

Her home is Inat, a small village at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains in Aksu prefecture in the south of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The village is just a few dozen kilometers from China's border with Kyrgyzstan, and for a long time communication with the outside world was difficult, if not impossible.