"Before coming to Xinjiang, everyone said it was really tough here, but actually it's not that tough. This is a place full of wonder and hope." These are the words of Dong Hongliang, a native of Gangu, Gansu, and a 2009 graduate of the School of Arts at Hexi University. He now serves as the principal of Pishan Farm Middle School, under the 14th Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

From 2009 to 2025, Dong Hongliang has spent a full 17 years rooted in the land of Xinjiang. On June 9, a reporter, together with the interview team of the "Youth Chapter · Silk Road Glow" online theme event, visited Hexi University, where the reporter saw Dong Hongliang chatting with his junior schoolmates.

Go back to the spring of 2009. The Education Bureau of the 14th Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps came to Hexi University to select interns. Dong Hongliang, along with more than 30 classmates, set off westward with dreams of the distant unknown. After traveling for three days and two nights, they finally arrived at the 224th Regiment Middle School, located at the junction of Pishan County and Moyu County.

The place was extremely arid and plagued by severe sandstorms. To take care of the boarding students, Dong Hongliang spent his nights crowded together with the children in a few bungalow dormitories. The doors and windows couldn't be closed tightly, so sand and dust would blow in. When they got up in the morning, a thin layer of fine sand often covered their quilts.

"To be honest, I did have second thoughts about staying," Dong Hongliang said. But what truly made him waver—and then strengthened his resolve—was a winter. "There was a little girl in my class whose parents had been working away from home for years. In winter, her hands and feet were red from the cold, and her hands would tremble when she wrote. One day, she said to me, 'Teacher, I want to study my way out of the desert and become a teacher someday too.'" At that moment, Dong Hongliang froze. He thought of his own childhood, standing on the ridges of the fields in Gangu, Gansu, gazing into the distance just like that.

After the three month internship ended, on the day he left the school, Dong Hongliang boarded the bus back home. Outside the window, a group of small figures ran after the bus, shouting, "Teacher, don't leave!" "It was then that I realized," he said, "that it wasn't that they couldn't do without me, but that I could no longer let go of them."

After returning to the university to complete his graduation formalities, Dong Hongliang did not hesitate for a moment before heading back to that land. Once he returned, he stayed for 17 years. He started as a special post teacher, teaching at primary, junior high, and senior high levels, and gradually rose to become the head of teaching and research, then vice principal, until November 2025, when he was appointed principal of Pishan Farm Middle School.

He has witnessed the No. 224 Regiment Middle School transform from a few bungalows into brand?new teaching buildings and dormitories; he has seen the school's college entrance examination undergraduate admission rate rise steadily from 38% in 2017 to 82.3% in 2022; and he has watched the once?barren Gobi wasteland grow into Kunyu City, now shaded by trees and lined with high?rise buildings.

In Dong Hongliang's heart, what is most precious is not the data, but the individual people themselves.

There was one child whom Dong Hongliang taught from primary school all the way through to graduation from junior high; later, after finishing college, he returned to Xinjiang and became a teacher at Kunyu City Vocational and Technical College. Another child was very mischievous in junior high and had little interest in studying; Dong Hongliang had heart to heart talks with him again and again, patiently guiding him. Eventually, he enlisted in the military and was awarded a third?class merit citation. But what moved Dong Hongliang the most was a Uyghur student who, when he first entered high school, had a very weak foundation in Mandarin. Dong Hongliang taught him starting from Chinese pinyin, character by character; three years later, he was admitted to university, and today he works as a staff member at the Pishan County Public Security Bureau.

In November 2025, Dong Hongliang was assigned to serve as principal of Pishan Farm Middle School, located 150 kilometers away from Kunyu City. The school has a predominantly ethnic minority student body, and among its more than 6,500 children, many have never left their hometown.

"They are just like the children I met in 2009—their eyes are full of hope and expectation," said Dong Hongliang. Today, he is leading the school in building a demonstration site for teaching and learning the national common language (Putonghua) as part of efforts to foster a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. He has also organized study tours for the students to cities such as Beijing, Xi'an, and Tianjin, where they visit revolutionary memorials, ancient capital ruins, and renowned universities. "I want these children to go out and see the world, and then come back to build their own hometown," he said.

Dong Hongliang's dedication is not an isolated case. Behind him stands a whole school that has taken up the torch.

"Since 2009, the university has sent 14,836 students in 35 batches to Xinjiang for internship and teaching support programs, and 14,399 of them have found employment or started businesses in Xinjiang, achieving the 'double over?10,000' milestone in both internship teaching and employment in Xinjiang," Wang Xiaohu, Director of the Admissions and Employment Office of Hexi University, told reporters.

From all walks of life to every city—and even this year, in Xinjiang's newly established Caohu City and Cenling County—Hebei University graduates can be found. This year, the university has specifically set up a Xinjiang Employment Work Office, with dedicated employment liaison officers stationed in Xinjiang, to promote pre?employment training, send?off ceremonies before departure, regular visits, and long?term assistance, continuously channeling talent to the western region.

During the interview, Dong Hongliang wanted to say to his junior schoolmates at Hexi University: "Go to where the motherland needs you most. It's not tough there—it's full of hope. There, a group of young people are doing something truly fulfilling together."