When Rehangul Yimir came to Beijing to attend her first National People’s Congress (NPC) session in 2013, she was the youngest deputy from northwestern China's  Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

She later said she was so nervous of being late to her meetings that she dared not sleep at night.

Four years later, and with five sessions under her belt, the more experienced Rehangul said "coming to Beijing for the two sessions is like going to my parents' home". With more confidence and determination, her propositions were larger in ambition and scope on how to further develop her hometown.

Journalist Cao Huan, from the newspaper China Daily, has been following Rehangul's story during the two sessions annually since 2013 and captured her 'transformation'.

Born in a family with six other siblings in a small county in Xinjiang in September 1989, Rehangul dropped out of middle school as her parents could not afford the tuition fees.

Her parents then started looking for a potential husband for her with a stable income, but Rehangul refused to marry and went to East China's coastal Zhejiang province to find a job.

Due to language barriers, she found it nearly impossible to communicate when she first began working at a textile factory in 2007.

But she didn't give up and worked hard to learn Mandarin and hone her skills. Within a short time she impressed the company so much with her diligence that she was named the workshop manager.

In the years that followed, she brought over 1,000 workers from Xinjiang to Zhejiang, who in turn contributed more than 10 million yuan to their hometown, sending money back home. She also created a team that became known for its "assiduousness, wisdom, honesty and integrity" in China's eastern areas.

In 2012 Rehangul was accepted in Xinjiang Vocational University with Chinese translation as her major, and elected as a delegate to the 12th National People's Congress.

In 2013 video journalist Cao started documenting Rehangul's  work, even being present when she wrote her speeches for the her appearance at the two sessions.  

"She was nervous, flustered and young. She wrote a speech for panel discussions and practiced dozens of times in her room as she wasn’t a fluent Mandarin speaker," Cao vividly recalled.

In 2015, Rehangul featured in CCTV's Spring Festival Gala as a national model worker.

Now she is a deputy head of a township in Kashi, Xinjiang.

2017 is already proving to be a momentous year for Rehangul. 

On a personal note she revealed that she is expecting a baby. While professionally she proposed that the construction of the China-Pakistan railway should be  accelerated and that more training bases should be built in Xinjiang. She also revealed that she is expecting a baby.

Kashi, a central area in southern part of Xinjiang, borders Pakistan and other Central Asian countries. "A number of the neighboring countries surely want to know more about our culture and development," she said.

Rehangul said the problem is that companies need skilled workers but there are not proper avenues to train the local population.

"For example, Kashi has a textile factory, so a training course in textiles should be established," she suggested.

Rehangul said that though there have been changes and growth in her in the past five years, one thing that would not change is her determination to contribute to the development of Xinjiang.

(Source: China Daily)