XML file structure

[internet54]

Hello,

Just looking around and I'm interested in using the system on my client sites.

My question is this.

Looking at an xml file directly it appears that it takes the typical symbol codes and makes them html codes.
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<item><pubDate>Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:30:36 -0600</pubDate><title><![CDATA[About Us]]></title><url><![CDATA[about]]></url><meta><![CDATA[about us page here]]></meta><menu><![CDATA[About Us Page Information]]></menu><menuOrder><![CDATA[0]]></menuOrder><menuStatus><![CDATA[Y]]></menuStatus><template><![CDATA[template.php]]></template><parent></parent><content><![CDATA[&lt;p&gt;Testing 1 2 3&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Quad Spaced&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h1&gt;HEADING 1&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;HEADING 3&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;HERE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;]]></content><private></private></item>
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Is this the correct format I'm looking at?
Why doesn't it use clean code?

Thanks!