Faces of China's educators

Zhang Guimei (R), principal of the Huaping Senior High School for Girls, looks at students leaving a national college entrance examination site in Lijiang, southwest China's Yunnan Province on June 7, 2024. Zhang, the principal of a girls school in Yunnan's mountainous areas, has been dedicated to helping rural girls improve their lives and chase their dreams through education and knowledge. (Xinhua/Hu Chao)

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China has an 18.7 million-strong teaching force, the backbone of the world's largest education system. Among them are those who have long served in rural areas, teachers who have made enduring contributions to scientific research, and educators who have crossed mountains and seas to bring knowledge overseas. On the occasion of the 42nd Teachers' Day, we present these faces of dedication, paying tribute to every Chinese educator whose dedication lights up budding dreams.

A teacher guides children in performing a dragon dance at a childcare center in Luzhou City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 5, 2025. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)

Pasang, a national first-class performer and retired member of the Tibetan opera troupe of the Xizang Autonomous Region, teaches children Tibetan opera at a public art center in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, Sept. 14, 2025. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

An instructor (1st L) supervises students on their frying-pan skill practice at a culinary school in Lantian County of Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, June 25, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

A teacher encourages students outside a national college entrance examination site in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, June 7, 2026. (Photo by Zheng Yi/Xinhua)

An aerial drone photo taken on May 26, 2026 shows children attending a football training session under the guidance of the school's full-time football coach Mei Shisheng's instruction on a slope near the Tongma dike of Yangtze River in Susong County of Anqing, east China's Anhui Province. (Xinhua/Du Yu)

Across China's vast rural landscape, rural teachers illuminate classrooms and light up the path of knowledge for children in the most remote communities. They take root at the podium, toil in obscurity, and achieve extraordinary feats at ordinary posts.

Sun Hongshun, a rural teacher who volunteers to teach children free of charge after retirement, and his wife hold a flag-raising ceremony with children outside his home in Xinshe Village, Duntou Town of Hai'an City, east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 4, 2026. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Teacher Meng Rongda (rear) and his students who got the new textbooks walk out of the classroom at Zhongzhai teaching site in Xishan Township of Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Sept. 6, 2024. Meng has been working as a teacher, cook and caretaker at the teaching site for years in the landlocked mountainous area, devoting himself to rural children. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Wang Xia (R), a physical education teacher, talks with a student at a dormitory of a rural school in Xingliu Town of Fuyang City, east China's Anhui Province, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Du Yu)

Village teacher Nong Jiagui poses with his students at a primary school in Guangnan County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Feb. 18, 2025. (Xinhua/Peng Yikai)

One-armed teacher Tang Guangfang gives a class to students at a primary school in Beishan Village of Quanzhou County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, April 26, 2016. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Teacher Ren Dabing (3rd R) accompanies students to take a ferry boat to cross the Huayuan River between southwest China's Guizhou Province and central China's Hunan Province on their way to school, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

On university podiums and at the frontiers of research, educators who do more than pass on knowledge pioneer innovation in the pursuit of the unknown. They stress the significance of talent cultivation and encourage young people to tackle cutting-edge challenges, guiding the nation's march toward scientific and technological strength.

Peng Chengzhi talks with a student at a laboratory of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, July 21, 2023.Peng is a professor and doctoral supervisor with the USTC and chief engineer of the scientific application system of Micius, the world's first quantum communication satellite. (Xinhua/Qian Yi)

Xue Qikun, a professor of Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Sciences academician and laureate of China's top sci-tech award for the year 2023, stands on stairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, capital of China, June 17, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

Zhao Dongyuan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and winner of the first-place prize of the State Natural Science Award, talks to students at a laboratory of Fudan University in east China's Shanghai, Sept. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

Li Jie (R), teacher of Shandong University of Aeronautics, introduces the principles of drones to students at a laboratory in Binzhou, east China's Shandong Province, Oct. 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Yang Guoping, a professor of North Minzu University, studies microorganisms at a laboratory in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Dec. 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Yang Zhisen)

From across the country, wave after wave of educators have answered the call to teach in the far western reaches of Xinjiang and on the snowy plateau of Xizang. Some have stayed for decades, some have moved their entire families westward, tapping into their wealth of experience to boost educational quality in the western regions. “Go where your country needs you the most.”

A volunteer teacher from Lingnan Normal University in Guangdong interacts with students at the Central Primary School in Nyangpo Township, Gongbo'Gyamda County, Nyingchi City, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, Sept. 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida)

A volunteer teacher (C) runs with students in the morning at the primary school of Sheyit Village in Karajol Township under Artux City, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 24, 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Hongyan)

Jiang Min (L), a volunteer teacher from east China's Jiangsu Province, conducts chemistry experiments with local teachers at a middle school in Yining City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Dec. 11, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

Volunteer teacher Chen Xiaohe, a retired teacher at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, gives a lecture at the Karamay campus of China University of Petroleum-Beijing in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 11, 2024. (Xinhua)

Around the world, Chinese educators are building bridges of mutual understanding, respect and appreciation. Whether in mountain classrooms in Sri Lanka, or in agricultural laboratories in Ethiopia, they share knowledge across borders, ranging from language and medicine to technology and beyond.

Chinese teacher Xia Zihan teaches students majoring in Chinese at Confucius Classroom in Sabaragamuwa University in the southern foothills of Sri Lanka's central mountains, Sept. 4, 2024. (Xinhua/Wu Yue)

A teacher (2nd R) teaches students to speak Chinese at the 2026 International Chinese Language Day event in Almaty, Kazakhstan, April 20, 2026. (Xinhua/Li Renzi)

Chinese instructor Ma Yujie (3rd L) demonstrates surgical suturing skills at a lab of Holeta Polytechnic College in the Holeta town of Oromia region, Ethiopia, May 14, 2026. (Xinhua/Liu Fangqiang)

Chinese teacher Jiang Jiang (R) communicates with a local teacher at the Chinese-built Ethiopian Luban Workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 15, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

A Chinese teacher instructs a student to make Chinese knot at the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 1, 2026. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

From cities to rural areas, from preschool to lifelong learning, the faces of educators extend far beyond these pages. The warm embrace of a special education teacher, the skilled hands of a vocational instructor, the patient companionship of a kindergarten teacher... Their daily perseverance upholds the future of every child. We cannot capture every face, but every act of dedication deserves to be remembered.

Huo Juan (R) hugs a kid at the Qimingxing care center for intellectually disabled children in Luzhou District of Changzhi City, north China's Shanxi Province, May 14, 2026. (Xinhua/Yang Chenguang)

Children make snacks under the guidance of a teacher at a kindergarten in Laoling City, east China's Shandong Province, Dec. 19, 2025. (Photo by Liu Zhenxing/Xinhua)

A teacher (C) teaches the brocade techniques of Li ethnic group at Hainan Minzu Technical School in Wuzhishan City, south China's Hainan Province, June 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

Jiang Dunren, a 91-year-old retired teacher, plays chess with children at a free summer childcare center in Jimo District of Qingdao City, east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 11, 2026. (Photo by Liang Xiaopeng/Xinhua)

Teachers and students release paper airplanes together at a primary school in Daoshui Town of Changzhou District in Wuzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, April 16, 2026. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)

This combo photo taken on April 24, 2025 shows the portraits of 23 volunteer teachers at the primary school of Sheyit Village in Karajol Township under Artux City, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Wang Fei)