A team consisting of 12 students, two teachers and three parents left on February 29 for Jingzhou Middle School in Pingtang County of Guizhou Province, on a charity trip organized by Shenzhen Education Bureau and Shenzhen Foreign Languages School.

    The team took love and best wishes to the remote school of 600 students, surrounded by mountains. I was one of the Shenzhen students on the trip.

    We arrived at Pingtang County in the evening, after a two-hour flight and another five hours on a bus. The county chief and school staff were waiting for us with a welcome dinner. We rushed to bed after dinner partly because of the long journey, but also, I think, because we all wanted to prepare for tomorrow’s early-morning arrival at our destination, Jingzhou Middle School.

    On arriving at the school at 8:30 the next morning, we were greeted by teachers and 12 students who offered homestays to our 12 students. The Shenzhen students visited local families and had lunch with them. Many of the Shenzhen students were deeply shocked by locals’ poor living conditions, yet we felt elation at their optimism toward life.

    In the afternoon, a donation ceremony was held. Our school handed over the money raised from the Sale of Work fund-raising effort, along with 18 laptops from Shenzhen Foreign Languages School, 2,000 books and some stationery. In addition, one parent donated 7,500 yuan to purchase bedding for the students and my parents donated 150,000 yuan to build several toilets.

    Teacher Xie told students from both schools that we should confront our lives with optimism, create our lives with hard work and repay society with grateful hearts. A parent said we should obtain three “hearts:” the heart to progress, the heart to be optimistic and the heart to appreciate. Those statements were well received by students from both schools.

    Following the ceremony was a wonderful performance by students from both schools. After having dinner with the local students, the Shenzhen students had classes with them and stayed overnight in their dormitory, where 36 students shared a room and two students shared beds of less than 1 meter in width.

    The next day we studied with the local students and shared not only the ways we study in Shenzhen, but also how we planned our lives.

    I believe what we saw, what we felt and what we did there will not only help the Jingzhou students living in the mountains, but also, to a great extent, help ourselves.