Ride of their lives

They were stranded in the middle of the sandstorm-hit Gobi Desert, with an injured horse and rations running low.

When Kazak herdsman Khuanbek Tusupkhan and his wife Jayna Turkhen spotted a pack of wolves trailing close by, they thought all was lost.

But a local Mongolian horseman soon came to their aid, treating their mount and helping them with crucial supplies.

It was just one of many instances when members of local ethnic communities, from Han to Mongolian, extended helping hands to the Kazak couple on their epic horse-riding journey from their home in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to the capital Beijing, a trip stretching 4,300 kilometers over 74 days from May 15 to July 27.

"We've received so much warmth and hospitality across the country these past few months, feeling the genuine, uplifting unity among all of us ethnic groups," Jayna, 25, says.

Jayna and 27-year-old Khuanbek rear horses in Shawan county of Tacheng prefecture, at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. They planned the trip, their first time out of the region, in April 2020, as a "personal way" to mark this year's centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and express their gratitude for the progress and development of the country under its leadership, Khuanbek says.