By Wei Yao

After breakfast， Li Tianchao， a 6-year-old boy， and his older sister will walk a few hundred meters to Xiaoxian Primary School， where he attends the affiliated kindergarten. Along the way， he will meet his classmates popping out from the old wooden houses scattered along the mountain road.

Located in the southeast of Chongqing Municipality and bordering the provinces of Hubei， Hunan and Guizhou， Lis hometown of Dabanying Village in Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County， has long been poor due to its remote location.

The kindergarten that Li goes to has only one class of 12 children， aged 3 to 6. Most of them are village residents and walk to school by themselves every day. Some who live several hours away in the mountains choose to board at the school.

Lis parents， like many other villagers， used to be migrant workers in Guiyang，Guizhou Province. They returned to the village two years ago to look after their children.

Rooted in mountains

Initiated in 2012 by the China Development Research Foundation（CDRF）， the mountain-village kindergarten project has established 3，000 new facilities across the isolated areas of 11 provinces， municipalities and autonomous regions. Cooperating with local governments， enterprises and nonprofit organizations， the project has benefited more than 200，000 children.

In 2019， the kindergarten was established in Lis hometown. Ou Shuiqiong， Lis 24-year-old teacher， is also the only one who works in this kindergarten. She was born in Youyang and became a village teacher six years ago after graduating from a secondary vocational school. When the kindergarten was established， she volunteered to teach there.

The road from school to town is a winding， bumpy mountain road， which， thanks to a minibus service， would otherwise take two or three hours to traverse on foot. Teachers sometimes take the minibus to shop， get deliveries or take training courses. Otherwise， Ou and eight primary school teachers will live on campus almost year-round， except for holidays.

Xiang Jie may be the child that Ou has the most contact with in daily life. His parents are migrant workers and his home lies far away from the kindergarten. Consequently， he and his older sister now board at the school and only go home on weekends.

Ou looks after him after school. She told Beijing Review that Xiang， who is a little introverted， is much more outgoing compared with the time when he first entered the kindergarten some two years ago. He has learned to get along with others and will help his friends with a warm smile on his face.