Mairamhan (R), a 63-year-old Uygur woman, brought up a baby girl of Han ethnicity for 16 years, and is helping the girl look for her birth parents. [Photo/chinanews.com]

The story of an ethnic Han girl and a Uygur family shows that love can transcend ethnicity.

On a cold winter day in 1999, Kebir Tumer walked on the street in Shaya county, Aksu, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region as usual. But a baby's cry interrupted his steps.

Walking closer to a dustbin where the cry came from, the Uygur man found a newborn baby girl in a cardboard box. After no one turned up to claim her for half an hour, Kebir took the girl home.

The arrival of the baby delighted the family, but the couple faced a thorny problem – with only the husband working to support the family of seven, life would be hard if they had another mouth to feed.

Kebir suggested sending the baby to a welfare house, but his wife Mairamhan was determined to keep her at home, and the couple gave her a Uygur name, Belikiz?Kebir.

"Belikiz is a little angel. She is such a nice girl that she never said or did anything that made us angry for the past 16 years," said Mairamhan.

"Although we are hard-up, we try to give the girl the best life we can," added the woman.