Song Huashou and his wife were outwardly calm as they told their love story, but it was easy to spot their inner excitement.

With a restrained smile, Song did not explain his feelings extravagantly. Instead, he recounted their experience in simple language.

His parents came from Qingdao, Shandong province, but his soldier father brought the family to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region just after Song was born in the early 1950s.

"It was an age of passion. Once my father received his instructions from the Army, he packed his bags without the slightest hesitation, and my mother was willing to leave with him," Song said.

It was not long before Song's father was assigned to Altay, a young and culturally diverse city. To Song and his family, a brand-new world awaited.

Song was raised in Hongdun, a community in Altay which has a large population of ethnic Kazakhs, and quickly mastered the Kazakh language.

As Song grew up, no one in his town thought he was different from the local Kazakhs. His neighbors still call him Kurmankhan, a name given by a Kazakh friend that means "sacrifice".