"As a captain, it's my responsibility to transport every passenger safely to their destination," he said.

In 2014, Urumqi Air was launched to meet the increasing demand for air travel in Xinjiang, a core area of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Abuduerxiti joined the company and began to fly over the land where his dreams of flying started. He was assigned the company's first flight and coincidentally, the destination was to his hometown, Yining. "That's where my dream began. Today, I'm flying home," he said to himself at the time.

During the memorable trip, he flew over the Tianshan Mountains and Sayram Lake, circled over the Ili River, and finally landed at Yining Airport.

As a captain and instructor, Abuduerxiti works four or five days a week and often flies over the Tianshan Mountains, a symbol of Xinjiang. The region's aviation industry has come a long way, just like he has. The once-remote area had flights to Singapore, Japan, Russia and many other countries before the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"When I was a child, I only had a dream of flying over the Tianshan Mountains. But since then I have also crossed the oceans. My reality has surpassed my dreams and the sky's the limit," he said.

Xinhua