Ethnic games bringing people together in Henan

"I learned some dancing when I was small in Xinjiang but ethnic aerobics is quite different. My legs pained during the first days after much practice. Now I am much better with that and can understand what the sport is."

Like Nana, most of her fellow members are beginners both in sport and dancing. Sun selected ten students from Nana's school to join another eight from his university to prepare for the games. Nana and her schoolmates took a brief summer holiday and then came back to train and compete for Henan.

"I feel frustrated and homesick when my training is not good," Nana said, "My coach knows how to pump me up and my family is proud of me for what I am doing."

Henan, the most populous province in China, boasts all 55 ethnic groups in its nearly 100 million people. Some local high schools admit ethnic students from the western part of the country.

Sun is not the only one to turn to for new Henan residents like Nana.

Cui Wenhao, a senior physical education student of Sias University, said he and other elder members can take care of their younger teammates when the coach is not available. "We try to help them when they don't know how to do it right so the team can improve quickly," said Cui, a Han student.

For Cui, his ethnic fellow teammates seemed disconnected and far from reach at the beginning. "We did not talk at first. Now we are so close that we exchange childhood and hometown anecdotes."

Sun said his Ugyur students told him they could see the Tianshan Mountain at home featuring different colors within a day and later they showed him the mountain through WeChat video call when talking with their families.