The principal of the first senior high school in China to offer free education to girls from poor families has been lighting the torch of hope for communities in the mountains of the country.

Principal Zhang Guimei founded the Huaping High School for Girls in 2008 in a poor, mountainous area in Lijiang City of southwest China's Yunnan Province, with no fee or admission requirements, hoping to remove as many obstacles to girls' education as possible.

At 68 years old, the dedicated educator continues to wake up early to take up the girls and stays up late to ensure every student returns to their dorms. Often seen speaking through a loudspeaker, she offers words of encouragement to the girls and enjoys playing music to lift their spirits.

Most of all, she reminds them that their time is precious.

Zhang arrived in Huaping County in 1996, when the county was still mired in deep poverty, with many teenagers, especially girls, dropping out of school. It was then that she made a bold decision to build a free high school for rural girls.

Over the past few decades, Zhang has sent nearly 2,000 girls to universities and colleges one generation after another, effectively rewriting the fate of the graduates. Many have gone on to develop successful careers.

For the past few decades, Zhang has devoted herself entirely to the students. Every morning around 5:00, she is the first to rise, ready to lead them into a new day.

Well past the usual retirement age, she continues to stay in her position as principal, even living alongside the girls in the dormitory.
Zhang hopes the torch of hope -- offering girls equal rights on education -- can be passed from one generation to another.