For 40 years, Nong Jiagui has taught in a remote mountain village in Yunnan province, helping 126 children leave isolation behind through education.
"Some of my students have become civil servants, doctors, teachers, and police officers," he says. "I am proud of them."
Nong, now 60, arrived in 1986 at a primary school in Guangnan county, then part of a so-called leprosy village established in the 1950s for more than 180 patients and their families. Cut off by steep terrain and burdened by stigma, children there had little access to schooling.
"My first instinct was to leave," Nong recalls. "But when I saw how eager the children were to learn, I couldn't walk away."
He stayed. Since then, every school-age child in the village has attended school. In 1992, all 12 students from his first class progressed to a nearby junior middle school, a breakthrough for the community.
To shield students from discrimination, Nong renamed the village Luosongdi, meaning peanuts in the ethnic Zhuang language. The children could then register at new schools without revealing their past.
Nong was the school's only teacher for decades until Zhu Lidan joined in 2020, inspired by his dedication.
In 2025, former student Yang Suqin returned after 20 years of teaching elsewhere, helping fill a long-standing gap in English education. "When I studied here, he gave us knowledge and strength," she said.
Now also a deputy to the National People's Congress, Nong advocates for rural education nationwide. "I have no regrets," he says. "What matters is truly serving the people."