Like many children in the remote region, Abuduerxiti did not travel from his hometown, let alone on a plane. "I had never seen a plane before high school, and I had never sat on a plane before graduating from college," he said.

Things changed drastically for him in 2000. China launched the "Xinjiang classes" program that enabled students from the region to study for free at top schools in more economically developed areas.

Abuduerxiti was one of the lucky ones chosen to attend school in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

As one of the first graduates of the program, Abuduerxiti went on to study at a university in Beijing. After graduation, he applied for Hainan Airlines' pilot recruitment program.

Abuduerxiti passed the rigorous physical examination, and was accepted as a student pilot and sent to the United States for further studies.

He said that student pilots like him had to work harder than pilots who were aviation major graduates.

In the US he worked hard and tried to get ahead by recording all his lectures and listening to them again at night. He later went on to obtain a private pilot's license, an instrument rating license and a commercial pilot's license.