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 so she wouldn't catch a cold.

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.