Situated on the top of a hill inside a nature reserve, Baimaxueshan (White Horse Snow Mountain) Tibetan Community School at Deqin, in Yunnan province, is home to dozens of students - some of whom graduated years ago.
Founded by Lama Luosang Qudan in 2000, the charity school provides free housing and education for Tibetan orphans or students from extremely poor families in Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet .
The students had been sent home for the summer break. But they all returned to school for a rare encounter with a group of Hong Kong primary school teachers. Their visit was organised by WWF Hong Kong and sponsored by Swire. Some of the students walked for as many as three days to get back to their term-time home.
Free education is provided on the mainland up to junior high school level. Students from extremely poor families don't have to pay for books.
'But those who can't afford to pay for food and clothing, or those without parents, are sent here,' says Lama Luosang.
In 2005, WWF China collaborated with the Baimaxueshan Nature Reserve to build a two-storey school with three dormitories and four classrooms for 61 students.
But financing the school has been a struggle. 'It costs 5 yuan [HK$5.70] per student per day, excluding the cost of teachers and teaching materials. We send our teachers to big cities like Beijing and Kunming to ask for donations. We try our best to run the school.'
