XML : Aparent XML anomaly on it's data structure

I found an XML situation that I cannot understand. A device is sending me an xml structure that contains something like this:

  <element>  2  <subelement>1</subelement>  </element>    

This XML is valid, as checked on several online validators however, it does not make sense to me. I am not sure how could I map this to a strong-typed object in c# or how to interpret it. I tried to find documentation on this or some other examples, but no luck.

Can anyone explain this? Provide maybe a link to some documentation?