Pic story of young village teacher in Xinjiang

Chen Fangying escorts a student home at Alimalik Village of Akto County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 12, 2021. Chen Fangying, a 24-year-old village teacher, is from southwest China's Guizhou Province. When she graduated from college two years ago, she chose to become a teacher in Xinjiang. The primary school where Chen teaches is located in the Kunlun Mountains, more than 1,800 kilometers away from Xinjiang's capital city Urumqi. "For me, this is the life I should live in my twenties," said Chen. Chen Fangying has more than ten classes every week, including Chinese, English and Music. In addition, she is also required to work with other teachers to develop solutions to help local teachers improve their capacity. Meanwhile, Chen often communicates with parents during home visits to help improve learning environment. Chen values the studies of 14 students in third grade most. According to local education policy, starting from the fourth grade, students are required to go to the County, 380 kilometers away from the village, to enjoy higher quality education. Chen is full of expectations for these students who will enter the fourth grade this September. She insists they should read more books so that they can learn more about the world outside the mountains. In her daily teaching, she focuses on activating the classroom atmosphere through novel teaching methods, broadening students' horizons and helping them build up confidence. In recent years, more and more tourists have come to the village. In the beginning, the students were shy about talking to tourists. However, Chen always encourages them to express their ideas with confidence. Now, they are much more outgoing. Chen is genuinely happy with the growth of her students. It's meaningful for Chen that the students would remember she had taught them after they walked out of the mountains and moved to the cities. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)