They gave her hand-made greeting cards to mark National Teachers' Day next day on September 10. Yi, who works at Dongfeng Primary School in Changsha, in central China's Hunan Province, was deeply moved.

"Thank you for the cards. I really like them very much," said Yi. She and her students then enjoyed a very pleasant class.

In other parts of China, students, parents and communities alike are also doing things to show respect for teachers on this special day. Sending greeting cards and small gifts have proved the most popular practices in schools, while shops are offering complementary goods to teacher shoppers and fitness centers offer free services.

As China puts increasingly more emphasis on education, both the social and economic status of Chinese teachers have risen markedly. In many areas, teaching has even become an enviable job.

In 2001, the annual wages of college and university teachers rose by 27.16 percent over the previous year, official sources said. Those of primary and high school teachers also got a year-on-year rise of 18.76 percent.

Official sources revealed the number of teachers in China has exceeded 10 million.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2002)