Despite being "stranded" most of the time in distant villages along the China-Kazakhstan border, Ravil Budukov said he finds his work exciting, building bridges between business communities in the neighboring countries.

Budukov, 24, now works as the press secretary for the China-Kazakhstan Khorgos International Center of Boundary Cooperation, responsible for Kazakh communications with Chinese government officials and business community members. "The center opens at 8:30 am, and every day there are around 300 tourists from Kazakhstan and 1,000 from China coming here from each side, mostly shopping," he said.

As a two-time winner of the Confucius Institute Scholarship, Budukov previously studied at the Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics, and at Suzhou University in Jiangsu province. As well as his native tongue, he speaks fluent Chinese.