A young teacher and her 36 students

Reporters from West China Metropolis Daily arrived in Shipai village school in Guangyuan on Jan. 5. It was extremely cold in the mountain village in winter.

Children after school wait for their grandparents. Li Xuemei, the headmaster and teacher, watched the children picked up and said: "36, not one less."

Shipai village school, with one preschool class and one grade one class, is the last and only school in Chaotian district. The 36 students are aged between 3 and 7. They are all stay-at-home children whose parents work in big cities.

The only classroom is one bungalow with the red wooden door half-closed. The two classes share one room.

The best time for the school was 1980s-90s. It had both primary school and middle school with more than 200 students and 10 teachers. However, the school is no longer crowded as young people have left the village.

Li Xuemei became a teacher when she was just 17, when other people of her age chose to leave the village and find job in big cities. Li’s husband persuaded her to give up the job as a teacher with only 1,000 yuan income a month. She refused. Li said that she had no idea who is willing to teach the poor children except her.

The temperature in mountains is always below 0 degrees Celsius in winter. Li Xuemei said that her only wish is that every child has one down jacket to keep warm.