Zhang enjoys the moment with her students in September. [Photo/Xinhua]

School in remote area

Chen Fayu, 27, remembers the first day she came to Huaping High School for Girls in 2009, where there was only one building, no walls, gate or restroom. Students and teachers slept in empty classrooms.

Chen says she could not have enrolled in any high school because she didn't reach the required grade, but Huaping was open to any girls and charged no fees.

"Teacher Zhang is tough. We were all a bit afraid of her," Chen recalls."She would walk from the back door of the classroom and make sure the students were concentrating fully on their studies."

Chen accompanied Zhang Guimei on a business trip to Kunming, capital of Yunnan, in August. At the end of the day, the teacher was exhausted and could barely speak. But she insisted on returning to Huaping, about a four-hour drive from Kunming, to look after the newcomers.

Now a policewoman at Yongsheng county in Lijiang, Chen says she learned from Zhang to "fully fulfill duty at work and help people in need".

Zhou Yunli, 27, a former graduate, says the school has grown and facilities have improved. Now it covers 5 hectares, with a large, renovated teaching building, three dormitories, a canteen and a soccer field. Classrooms are equipped with computers and electronic screens. The school is financed by the local government and has received donations from individuals and companies.

In 2008, Zhou's father could only afford to send one of two daughters to high school, and her elder sister was about to give up her chance."If that happened, I would be guilty my whole life."

The sisters were both able to go to the school because it was free.

Zhou returned to the girls' school in 2015 as a math teacher, after graduating from Yunnan Normal University, to "help change the life of girls from poor families like me", she says.

She says all students must have short hair, eat lunch within 10 minutes and wash clothes once a week, to save time for study. Now the school has three classes with about 150 students in total.

Zhou says the principal will never be satisfied with grades from their gaokao, China's college entrance exam. "She always says we should have done better," she says, adding although the school's enrollment rate often ranks in the front in the city.

Li Cong, deputy director of the publicity department of Huaping, says: "Though she is stubborn sometimes, her persistence is what makes change possible."