Bulungkol, Xinjiang: The village was as quiet as a museum.

Bordering Tajikistan at an altitude of 3,800 metres, many of its homes were empty while residents went herding in the mountains. 

The whirring of two white windmills in the wind broke the tranquillity.
Part of the village's wind-solar-diesel hybrid power system, they have been generating electricity for the past five years.

The Kirgiz people of Bulungkol have been herding sheep and cows for generations. Their only source of light at night used to be candles.

The remote location, about 130 kilometres southwest of Kashi in central Xinjiang, made it difficult for the provincial electrical power grid to reach residents.

But their lives changed in 2002 with the launch of the power system. Scattered across five places in Bulungkol County, it cost 6.56 million yuan (US$820,000), and was paid by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The facility, bringing electricity for lights and small domestic appliances, made life much easier.

Abudulamuti, 16, can now do his homework and watch TV after sunset.

"It was one of my happiest moments," Abudulamuti, speaking the Kirgiz dialect to reporters through an interpreter, said of the day when the lights went on and his 35-centimetre television screen began to show images.

"We were so excited," said Abudulamuti, wearing a worn-out baseball cap and a blue jacket. "My three brothers and I stayed up till midnight watching TV. It was fun."
Five years ago, television and lights were just pictures in textbooks. His teachers said he could watch TV if he could travel to Kashi.

 Now, his television, which his father, a livestock dealer, bought for 560 yuan (US$70), can receive two channels broadcasting Uygur-speaking programmes.

Abudulamuti said soon they will be able to receive eight TV channels and four radio stations, including programmes in Mandarin.

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