The children shout in unison as the teacher points to the Chinese characters he has written on the blackboard.

This is Tianxianling school, high in the Tianxianling Mountains in Haiyan County of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The school, which was built by about 100 local families, now services seven students -- three in first grade and four in preschool, but all taught by Chen Qichang, the only teacher in the mountains.

"The student will go to the town of Yong'an at the foot of the mountain to continue their studies in a bigger primary school when they finish their third grade here," said Chen, who has managed the school alone for more than 30 years.

"This school has been relocated three times and even separated into two parts," he recalled.

Chen, now in his early 50s, said in the late 1980s he was the only teacher at two schools, each on separate hills in the Tianxianling mountains. Students from the southern hilltop had to go to the northern school for their summer semester and, in winter semester, the reverse was true.

"There were generally less than 10 children," said Chen. But no matter how few students there were, Chen always taught earnestly, viewing the children as his own. "We were like a family," he said.

Chen not only teaches the children maths and Chinese literature but has added a sports class as well. Since the school had no money for sports facilities, Chen used the round and thick bamboo growing on the mountains to build a horizontal bar, uneven bars, a single-plank bridge and stilts all by himself, creating a small playground for his students.

"Playing sport is a good way of improving stamina and making them smarter," he said.

During the past three decades, more than 200 students have passed through the small classroom before beginning their own lives.

"I believe none of them would forget they started here," said Chen.

(China Daily June 13, 2003)