Village teacher Gou Xiaochao, 24, was scheduled to start his honeymoon today.

Instead his funeral will be held today.

Heartbroken villagers, relatives and colleagues stayed up Monday night as the hero lay in a coffin at his home in the mountainous Tongjiang county of Sichuan province, about 400 km away from the quake's epicenter.

When the quake struck on Monday, most of the 158 students in Tong'anba Village School were having their afternoon nap.

The building started to shudder and buckle - and Gou was alert to the danger.

With characteristic calm and efficiency, he - and fellow teachers - guided most of the 158 students out of the three-story building which was severely damaged.

"Students, parents and colleagues are all here to show their respect and sorrow," Wen Jun, math teacher at the school, told China Daily in tears yesterday.

When the building began shaking at 2:28 pm, Gou dashed to the third floor and pulled five students to safety. The other nine teachers, too, were doing the same.

After bringing out the five students, Guo sprinted back up but this time - three or four minutes after the quake - collapsing walls and debris fell on him as he was rushing back with three students.

Severely injured, Gou managed to stagger out of the building with the three students.

He died on the way to hospital to the county town, about 80 km away from the village, and despite his heroic efforts, two students also succumbed to injuries.

A total of four died in the village where buildings suffered considerable damage.

Gou, a computer science major, was ranked first in the Tongjiang teaching qualification examination a year ago.

But he gave up the chance to teach in the county town and chose to work in the village.

He Mei, who Gou married only 10 days earlier, also teaches in a poor village school about 20 km away.

(China Daily May 14, 2008)