Cao Xiaofei, a college graduate who returned to his hometown, leads the villagers onto the road to prosperity

On the eve of International Children's Day, every child at the bilingual kindergarten in Yuka Kesati Village, Kalatale Town, Aksu City received a holiday gift: a toy worth 50 yuan and a set of school supplies.

The gifts were from their "big brother" Cao Xiaofei. As the first college graduate to return to the village, Cao Xiaofei won the praise of the villagers by leading them to set up a cooperative, plant jujube trees and open an online store so that everyone could prosper together.

Cao Xiaofei's father, Cao Mingzhi, came to Yuka Kesati Village in 1983 and never left.

"The reason my father stayed is that when he was at his most difficult, the Uyghur villagers in the village helped him get through that hardest time, one family giving a few kilograms of rice and another a bag of flour. So my father always taught me that a person must not forget his roots, and that when I have the ability in the future, I must help the Uyghur villagers in the village!" Cao Xiaofei said.

In 2008, 22-year-old Cao Xiaofei graduated from Harbin Vocational and Technical College of Biotechnology in Heilongjiang and returned to his hometown to learn jujube grafting techniques from his father. He then set up a jujube grafting team in the village, taking on jujube grafting work in many places. At present, the grafting work of most jujube growers in Kalatale Town, Aksu City is contracted to Cao Xiaofei's jujube grafting team, which has increased the income of the village's ethnic minority residents.

In 2009, Cao Xiaofei set up the "Jiangnan Jujube Industry Farmers' Professional Cooperative" in the village, and more than a dozen Uyghur villagers joined at that time. At present, the cooperative has grown to 133 villager households. While setting up the professional cooperative, Cao Xiaofei also built the "Jiangnan Jujube Industry Farmers' Professional Cooperative Jujube Processing Factory", implementing a one-stop service of production, supply and marketing, and removing the worries of the village's jujube growers.

"Through unified technical management, jujube yields have increased, prices are good, and sales have gone up too. The farmers' professional cooperative initiated by Cao Xiaofei is truly great! Today, nearly every jujube-growing household in the village that has joined the cooperative owns a car." So said Yasen Yiming, who under Cao Xiaofei's guidance once achieved a net profit of 20,000 yuan per mu from jujubes.

In Yuka Kesati Village, the village officials and villagers all know that the agricultural supplies and farm machinery at Cao Xiaofei's home are "public" and anyone can borrow them freely.

"My family has little land, so buying machinery is not worthwhile. It just so happens that Boss Xiao Cao has some at home, and he is a good man. I borrow his farm machinery every year and save the money on buying agricultural machinery," said villager Reheman Kurban.

Cao Xiaofei also often does charity work. In 2010, he spent nearly 20,000 yuan to give 20 poor Uyghur villagers in the village cash, rice, flour, cooking oil and other gifts of comfort; in 2016, he also bought a projector and office supplies for the village free of charge, and added office desks and chairs and other items for the village school, improving the working and learning environment of the village committee and the school.

"Cao Xiaofei is a model of ethnic unity in our village. He leads us to prosper together. The fertilizer, pesticide, diesel and fruit packaging materials at his home have always been given free of charge to the village's poor villagers. He is an example for us to learn from." said Maimaiti Yushan, former Party branch secretary of Yuka Kesati Village.