Khalitan's family members of different ethnicities take a group photo at the wedding.[Photo by Yang Yang/China Daily]

Khalitan learned how to cook the dishes from her family members. Her husband is Uzbek, her younger sister married a Kazak, her elder sister married a Tatar, her son-in-law's father is from the Russian ethnic group, and her "younger brother", who has close bond with the family, is of Han ethnicity. From them, she learned Uzbek stewed lamb with fruits and vegetables, Kazakh horse and lamb meat noodle soup, and Tatar cakes.

"I have a bigger house than others, so on festivals for different ethnic groups, such as Spring Festival and Corban, family members gather together at my place. I prepare snacks and dishes of five ethnicities. I can't miss any ethnicity, otherwise people won't be happy," she says, laughing.

On the walls of the entrance to her house hang the photos of her two daughters. One is 27 years old and the other is 20. Both started learning to play the violin at a young age and were admitted to the China Conservatory of Music. The mother is very proud of her daughters.

"I was a dancer before. But to give my daughters a better violin education, I quit at age 35 and went to Beijing to look after them while they were preparing for the admission examination of the middle school affiliated to the China Conservatory of Music. We lived in a basement apartment and had simple meals. My daughters practiced eight hours a day to catch up with other students. We overcame a lot of difficulty and both of them entered the conservatory," she says.

In a room of the yard, old photos and objects are carefully arranged: a small radio set, a water bottle that Khalitan's father used while herding sheep, an old accordion, a 150-year-old phonograph and an old dombra (a long-necked lute with two strings).

"When I was little, there was no TV.So my father would play the dombra in the evening and I would dance. That's how I became a dancer later," she says.

Among the photos, she points to a man of Han ethnicity, and says: "He is my younger brother. It was in 1986 when he came to Tacheng at the age of 13 from Shandong province. My father was herding sheep in the Gobi Desert and saw him. My father asked him,'At your age, you should be in school. Why are you here?' The boy said he had come to work, but it was already October and cold, and he had no place to stay. So my father brought him home with the approval of other family members."