A teacher's moving story

She would walk the two children through their homework assignment, play games with them and trim their hair.

These interactions have helped both children grow in confidence and shake off their timid nature at school.

"Cheng is just like our mother," Tan says.

"I feel like I can talk to her about anything," she adds.

Cheng voluntarily chose to move to the school last year after she learned it was in need of faculty members.

She has since helped to improve the teaching facilities and infrastructure, and went out of her way to reach children scattered around the surrounding rural area and persuade them to come to school.

Thanks to her efforts, approximately 200 children in the neighborhood have been able to enjoy better education.

Over the past decade, Cheng has gone into the depths of the mountains and jumped to the rescue of several poorly equipped rural schools in Poyang to help village children get access to quality education.

She also has a spirit of steel and never rests on her laurels.

Whenever she helps transform a rural school, she moves on to answer the call of another one.

Right after graduation in 2011, Cheng became a teacher at Tutang Primary School in Youcheng township of Poyang.

It was a 15-minute bike ride from her home, but she immediately applied to live on campus.