KASHGAR, Xinjiang: Under a clear blue sky and in front of the golden Etigar Mosque, 15-year-old Xiayidan Mukongmu did a pirouette, her colorful dress swirling in the wind.

"I dance at home every day after I finish my homework. It is boring to dance alone, so I dance with my 7-year-old brother," she said.

"We Uygurs dance when we walk and sing when we speak."

Mukongmu, whose name means "purple fragrant flower", was waiting with her classmates to dance at the launch ceremony for the Olympic torch relay in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, yesterday.

She and several other boys and girls were humming a song while waiting.

"We are humming a new Uygur pop song but we know a lot of songs, in Uygur, Han and English," Mukongmu said.

"We learned Red Valley, Scarborough Fair and a dozen other English songs at school."

Kashgar, where these teenagers were born and grew up, is one of the oldest Uygur cities, which is famous for being the "homeland of Uygur song and dance".

Mukongmu said she likes learning English more than other subjects. She studies at the Uygur-language No 14 Middle School.

English is taught three hours a week but she spends a lot of her time listening to English-language radio programs and tapes.

"I want to go to a big city in the future. I want to study abroad and to travel around the world," she said.

"There are many foreigners in Kashgar and I want to practice my English with them like some of my classmates do. But I am too shy."

Reyihangu Rouzi, 14, is a student at the No 8 Middle School in Kashgar and she wants to be more proficient in the Han language.

Her name means "white fragrant flower".

"I want to go to Shanghai for further studies. From watching TV, I can see that Shanghai is beautiful and exciting city," she said.

"If I stay home, I may have to get married in three or four years' time like most other girls here.

"I do not want to be a wife so young," Rouzi said.

She and her classmate Reyina Abudureyimu, also 14, both danced at the launching ceremony yesterday.

"All Uygurs have artistic talent," Reyina Abudureyimu said.

"There were several hundred people dancing together when my brother got married last month."