David is a truck driver. Recently, he was thought to be a great man.

Last Monday, he was driving along the road with his son and his friend. Suddenly, he saw a car hit another truck and catch fire. The accident was just in front of his truck. Without thinking, he stopped his truck, found a fire extinguisher (灭火器) and ran towards the broken car. But other car drivers still sat inside their cars. David began to fight the fire. His action encouraged his friend. He also came and gave David a hand. Later, David’s son and four other men came to help. Another five men pulled the car driver and her granddaughter, a three-year-old girl out of the car successfully. They were all safe except ( 除了) that the driver’s leg was hurt.

When people talked about David’s brave action, David said, “I don’t think about too much then. I just did what other people would do in that situation. When I first got out of the truck, I wished that they wouldn’t be dead. When I saw they were alive, it was really great!”

“My father was so calm and brave. He set a good example to me,” said David’s son.

About 20 years ago, while on the way to visit a student’s house, Zhang Guimei, a teacher in Huaping county (县) , Lijiang, Yunnan province, noticed a girl sitting on the hillside. The girl, 13, told Zhang she was about to get married. It was decided by her parents.

“But I want to go to school,” the girl said. Zhang went to her house and tried to talk to her parents to let the girl return to school and promised to pay for her school study herself. However, they didn’t agree. Zhang felt sorry about not being able to help. “We always say, each child should stand on the same starting line, but these girls didn’t even have a chance to get on the track (跑道) ,” she said.

After that, Zhang started to work on building a free high school for girls.

After years trying to raise funds, in 2008, Huaping High School for Girls, a free public high school, was founded and Zhang is the principal. Over ten years, more than 1,800 students from the school have gone to college. It is a “miracle”(奇迹) in the remote area, as most students didn’t do well in their study before the school was founded.

Zhang, now 63, insists on a daily routine—gets up at around 5 am to turn on the lights of the teaching building, calls students to get up with a loudspeaker, accompanies students to classes and sleeps after senior students’ study ends at midnight.

Zhang Guimei says she wants children from the mountain to attend the best universities.

In early December 2020, she was named a national outstanding member of the Communist Party of China for her achievements in education in the countryside in China. She was also given the honor of the country’s “role model for teachers”, “advanced worker” and “outstanding woman”.

Zhang Guimei says that a girl can influence three generations (代). “An educated, responsible mother will not let her children drop out of school.” she says. Her goal is to stop poverty(贫穷) from passing down from generation to generation.