Teacher joins State leaders in Beidaihe

A woman who has taught in a small village for 26 years was among a group of regular workers and better known people who were invited by State authorities earlier this month to vacation in the coastal resort of Beidahe.

Xu Yunling told Henan Business Daily that she was surprised that an ordinary teacher such as herself would receive an invitation from the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council.

"I often think that what I do is trivial and ordinary," she said. "But our Party leaders really value me and care about me. What a surprise!"

Since 1986, Xu has been teaching in a school in Sunzhuang village in Biyang county, Henan province, where she made a monthly income of less than 200 yuan ($31.44) for 23 years. In 2009, her income increased to 1,200 yuan a month.

During the past two decades, she fell prey to misfortune several times. Her husband contracted nephritis; her son's right-hand fingers were broken in an accident; her daughter was afflicted with a cyst. However, Xu never gave up teaching at the school, which stands in a mountainous rural area.

Xu and her husband even worked to build three stone rooms that were used as classrooms when the school was opened.

To prepare for the vacation, Xu asked her daughter to dye her hair and spent 70 yuan on a dress and a pair of sandals. During her time at Beidahe, she met various Party leaders, including Vice-President Xi Jinping.

Together with Xu, 62 experts and outstanding workers were invited to the resort, including Jing Haipeng, an astronaut on the Shenzhou spacecraft.