(ECNS) -- I first met He Jiaolong in April 2021, at an office in the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
At the time, the Xinjiang branch of China News Service was preparing a series of short videos on the transmission of intangible cultural heritage. Our team had come to Ili to research story ideas. Jiaolong had just taken up her post as deputy head of the prefecture's culture and tourism authority. She welcomed us warmly, greeting each person with a handshake and a smile.
She was slight in build but striking in presence, articulate, energetic, and clearly passionate about her work. That meeting proved highly productive: we identified more than 30 potential story topics, enough to sustain our filming plans for months.
Small in stature, Jiaolong possessed remarkable stamina and drive. From Zhaosu County to Ili Prefecture and later to the regional level, she became widely known as a "web celebrity official." Yet she never treated popularity as an end in itself. Instead, she turned online attention into a tool: to promote Xinjiang, to support local agriculture through livestreaming e-commerce, and to advance rural revitalization.
Born in December 1979, Jiaolong spent many years working in Zhaosu County, a place famed for its horses and often called the "Home of Heavenly Steeds." She served in several townships and towns there, where she learned to ride. Horses would later shape both her public image and her legacy.
Her rise to national attention began in 2017, after she became deputy head of Zhaosu County. A short video of her riding across snowy fields, whip in hand, to promote winter tourism went viral. In those clips, she appeared like a heroine from a martial arts epic: bold, free-spirited, and emblematic of Xinjiang's vast landscapes and untapped beauty.
In 2021, as cultural tourism officials across China experimented with new media outreach, Jiaolong was promoted to deputy head of Ili's culture and tourism department, overseeing publicity and helping establish a local self-media association. Two years later, she moved to a regional post, where she led the creation of the "Taste of Xinjiang" regional public brand. Under her guidance, more than 400 agricultural enterprises completed e-commerce transformations.
Since her first viral moment, He never strayed from her mission: supporting farmers and revitalizing rural communities. According to media estimates, she hosted more than 500 livestream sales events over five years, generating over 600 million yuan (around $86.1 million) in sales of Xinjiang agricultural products.
She was always clear about her intentions. "My goal is not to become an internet celebrity," she once said. "It is to turn traffic into tangible results: to promote agricultural livestreaming, to market Zhaosu and Ili, especially winter tourism. I am not the internet celebrity; the mountains and rivers of Ili are."
In late December 2025, Jiaolong made what would become her final public appearance, speaking in Beijing at the 2025 Regional Agricultural Brand Annual Ceremony as director of the Xinjiang Agricultural Products Branding and Distribution Service Center.
Xinjiang is often described as a land rich in resources and natural abundance. But for local residents, the most urgent task has always been turning high-quality local products into real income. He understood this deeply.
She explained that to make "Xinjiang flavors go viral," the region had built the "Taste of Xinjiang" brand, established eight agricultural livestreaming bases across 14 prefectures and cities, and, after three years of effort, achieved more than 20 billion yuan in direct and driven sales.
She was an internet star, but she left the spotlight to Xinjiang, enriching rural areas and improving the lives of farmers.
Although we had added each other on WeChat more than four years earlier, we rarely spoke. I would occasionally see her posts, mostly about livestreaming and agricultural promotion.
On December 26, 2025, we met again in Urumqi, at Xinjiang Wild Horse Group. She was recording an interview with its chairman, Chen Zhifeng.
Ten days later, she edited the footage into a short video and posted it on her account, "He Jiaolong: Taste of Xinjiang." In sharing it to her Moments, she wrote:
"Not all perseverance can withstand the passage of time. But when it is driven by passion, it becomes unstoppable. With the sincerity of a 'Xinjiang horseman,' Mr. Chen has honored his promise as a civilian ambassador for half a lifetime. This is his most romantic commitment to the blending of civilizations."
No one knew then that it would be her final post.
In the early hours of January 15, authorities announced that on January 11, Jiaolong had suffered a fatal fall from a horse while at work. Despite intensive medical efforts, she succumbed to her injuries on January 14. She was 47.
She once said she shared an unbreakable bond with horses. As the Year of the Horse approached on the lunar calendar, this devoted advocate for her homeland, a promoter of Xinjiang's culture and agriculture, met an abrupt and heartbreaking end to that bond, leaving behind unfinished work and a legacy rooted firmly in the land she loved.
(The author, Wang Jinsheng, is editor-in-chief of China News Service Xinjiang Branch. The story was translated by Evelyn)
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