IT was a chilly mid-March day, but Dashui Village in Dafang County, Guizhou Province, was warm with excitement.

More than 100 students from the village’s Anshan Primary School and their parents were waiting in the rain at the village entrance for their teacher — Sun Ying.

It is the fourth time that Sun, a Shenzhen teacher in her 20s, has gone to the village to serve voluntarily as a teacher for the 190 or so pupils. Many of these children spend more than two hours each day on winding mountain roads to get to school.

The day after Sun arrived at the village, she started giving lessons. After a full day teaching Chinese, art and physical education, she went to visit the family of two of her pupils, Fan Di and Fan Longsheng.

The parents of the two boys couldn’t have been happier. They took out a bowl of walnuts to entertain Sun, who had visited the family many times before to give extra guidance to their children.

Pupils living nearby were also excited. Very soon, more than 10 kids gathered in the small house of the Fan family, where Sun checked their homework from the past winter holiday.

Her diligence and kindness has endeared her to every one in the village. Gao Longxian, headmaster of the school, praised her as the “best teacher” he had seen.

Leaving behind the trappings of a big city, Sun has led a simple life in the remote, impoverished village. Sun said her biggest hope was to see all her students in the classroom every morning as many of them were often on the verge of dropping out because their poverty-stricken families could not afford the school fees.

(Wu Tong)