Across China: Ramadan in multicultural Xinjiang

At dusk, Mursabek Galek returned home after a whole day's work at a construction site. Fruit, naan bread and frozen mare's milk had been set on the table by his wife.

Galek lives in Xinjiang's Akqi, a county inhabited by people of Kyrgyz ethnicity. Like many other ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Kyrgyz people observe the holy month of Ramadan.

Galek waited until all his family members -- his mother, wife and children -- were seated at the dinner table. He then prayed in a deep voice, drank a glass of water and had a bite of naan. A day's fast was ended.

Ramadan lasts from June 18 to July 18 this year. During this season of fasting and spiritual reflection, Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink from sunrise to dusk. It is widely observed by Xinjiang's ethnic minorities including Hui, Uyghur, Kazak, Uzbec, Tajik and Kyrgyz.

In downtown Kashgar City, Yakhip Ghupur sells vegetables from the back of his tricycle.

Every day, he gets up at 6 a.m. and rides 10 km to buy vegetables from a wholesale market.

Temperatures can be as high as 35 degree celsius during the day in Kashgar at this time of year. Ghupur said toiling for a long time in that heat without food or water was too hard to bare, so he had to break his fast recently.

Eli Sidik has ran a Kashgar shop selling baked buns for 17 years. It gets crowded for lunch.

Sidik goes to the mosque five times a day during Ramadan. "I think it should be a personal choice as to whether to observe the fast or not," he said. "One of my employees is fasting, but his apprentice is not, for he has to chop about 100 kg of meat every day, which is an exhausting job."

Ma Youfu is an Imam of a Hui mosque in Yining City. He said, "The spiritual side of Ramadan is the most important. We should abstain from bad deeds and vulgar words and try our best to do good things, and that is the main achievement we can have during the holy month."

In a bazaar in regional capital Urumqi, Aynurem of Uzbec ethnicity runs a Turkish handicrafts shop. The bazaar sees visitor numbers peak as Xinjiang enters the summer tourist season.

Aynurem said it requires perseverance to stick to fasting at a time when the business is busy. "After having breakfast around 5 a.m., I spend the whole day purchasing and selling goods, which is really tiring," she said. "But as a Muslim, Ramadan is a big part of my life."

As night falls, some stores in Urumqi set round tables at the roadside. The tables bear food offered for free to Muslims who can't make it home to break the fast. Endi