On a small hill at the edge of Huaping County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, China, there is a small school, but in the 12 years since it was founded, 1,804 poor girls have been sent to universities, successfully rewriting their fate.

The 63-year-old Zhang Guimei is the principal and founder of this school. Twenty years ago, after she went to teach in Huaping County, she came across "many girls that just disappeared before they finishing their studies." After inquiring, she learned that some of them were forced to work and others to get married at a young age.

During a home visit, she ran into a 13-year-old girl sitting on the side of the road. The girl cried and told her, "I want to study, I don't want to marry." It turned out that the girl's parents asked her to drop out of school to marry just for a dowry of 30,000 yuan ($4,594).

Zhang came to the girl's house angrily and told her mother: "I will take the child away, and I will pay for her school expenses." But the girl's mother threatened Zhang with death if she stopped the marriage. Finally, Zhang gave up.

"I never saw the girl again. This is a regret I have had whole life", she said.

"We often say that we want every child to have a fair starting line, but these poor girls here don't even have a chance to stand on the starting line," she said.

Since then, a dream has gradually emerged in her heart: Establishing a free high school so that poor girls living in the mountains can get an education.

Free high school for poor girls in the mountains

It is difficult to set up a school, but she never stopped. After years of trying to raise funds, in 2008, the Huaping High School for Girls, a free public high school, was founded at the foot of the Shizi Mountain in Huaping.

In order to prevent the poor girls from losing the opportunity to study due to poverty, Zhang stipulated that tuition and accommodation fees are all free. "As long as they want to study, they are all welcome and recruited."Though lacking health and dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, Zhang insists on a daily routine of getting up at around 5 am to turn on the lights on each floor of the teaching building, calls students to get up with a loudspeaker, accompanies them to classes and sleep after senior students' study ends at midnight. 

"Many girls are timid. Turning on the lights ahead of time, they will feel safer and more secure when they come to read in the morning," Zhang said.

She insists dong this, though she swallows dozens of pills a day and has collapsed several times from exhaustion on the campus.

In the summer of 2011，100 percent of the first generation of Huaping High School for Girls graduates passed the college entrance examination. 

"Compared with students' enrollment results, Huaping High School for Girls has created a miracle," said Zhang Xiaofeng, director of the school's office, as nearly all of the school's first-generation graduates were those who failed the college entrance examination the previous year.

The spirit of helping others is passed on from generation to generation

Zhang also insists on home visits all year round and has traveled more than 110,000 kilometers, helping at least 1,500 students in Huaping and surrounding counties. 

So far, the school has sent away 10 generations of graduates and 1,804 students have been admitted to universities. 

In early December, she was named an outstanding national member of the Communist Party of China for her dedication to education in rural China. She was also given the honor of the country's "role model for teachers," "advanced worker," and "outstanding woman." Her moving stories inspire thousands of people.

"A girl can influence the next three generations," she told media outlets. "An educated and responsible mother will never let their children drop out of school", said Zhang, adding that her goal is "to prevent poverty from passing down from generation to generation."

Over the years, Zhang has donated nearly all her salary, bonuses granted to her by governments at all levels, and even the money raised for her medical treatment to education and social undertakings in the impoverished mountainous area of ​​Huaping, infecting her colleagues and students around her.

Zhou Yunli is a first generation student in Huaping High School for Girls. After graduating from university, she was admitted as a middle school teacher and when she heard that her alma mater was short of math teachers, she quit her job immediately and returned as a substitute teacher.

"Without the school, I would be nobody," she said, adding that when she was a child she couldn't continue to study because of poverty. "When I heard that a kind teacher built a free high school, I felt like grabbing a life-saving straw."

"This is what teacher Zhang taught us. When you become strong, you must remember to help others," Zhou said with a smile.