Embedded on the Chinghaishizang T at a height of 4500 m above sea level, sits the only school across the vast land of Mado Township.
The herd of children here live a life far away from the Tech Linked world.
You sit there quietly, listening to the sound of catapults.
It's such a delightful feeling.
But they all long to wander into the unknown world.
The place has one of the longest winter seasons and temperatures that can drop to minus 40 I could have died due to altitude sickness and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Join us to visit the school next to the headwater of the Yellow River and hear the story of love and health, courage and devotion in the second episode of our twelve -part series, the Yellow River mosaic.
Growing up at the headwater.
April 6, 2024 at Ma -Dua Township, Qinghai Province, the birthplace of the Yellow River.
Yes, we check the dorms to make sure that everyone is OK, and the fire is out, otherwise there is the risk of monoxide poisoning.
I routinely check the dormitories 3 times throughout the night just in case.
I will accompany any boy who needs to use the toilet at night.
The weather is capricious, and that means the road lights are not reliable.
I must make sure the kids don't slip and fall when they go to the bathroom.
Deep in the snowy Qinghai Xi Zao plateau, next to Yekwutzonichi, the head water of the Yellow River, is the only school of Mardor Township.
A total of 211 Tibetan children study in this primary school.
Among them, 90 % are boarding students.
While the rest of the country is basking in warm, spring sunshine, I arrived here in sleet and freezing temperatures.
At a height of 4 ,500 meters above sea level, Oxygen makes up only 11 % of the air we breathe, while at sea level, it's up to 21%.
This is one of the world's most challenging living environments for people.
What's the point of running a school in such a place?
How can they survive and manage sustainably?
Are the kids here happy or unhappy?
happy, as I so often see in the eyes of kids growing up in the city.
Snow storms swept through every night during my three -day visit.
As life in a completely different world unfolded before my eyes, an answered question lingering in my mind.
The road was blocked after a night of snowfall.
Gongga, the headmaster, was clear in the way so that some 20 -day students, those who returned home in the evening, could get into the school.
The kids were shy and cheerful.
Some struggled to find the right words to talk to me in Chinese, sniffling loudly in the cold weather.
Soon I began to gasp for air because of a lack of oxygen.
The children just kept on running to the classroom, kicking.
for the two kids on duty the first task in the morning is to warm up the classroom We get a flame from the kitchen and start a new fire in the stove here.
The cool done helps the fire get a good start.
Then we add coal. Power shortages are the biggest problem.
Electricity is generated by solar energy, but the harsh weather means it's always in short supply.
Wi -Fi was installed last year, but is accessible only when there's power.
The school is also equipped with computers, but they cannot use them for the same reason.
The solar energy stored is utilized in an extremely careful manner.
To save power, the teachers blow a whistle instead of ringing a bell to summon the kids to class.
The kids attend class in their winter school uniform.
To my surprise, I found nobody wearing glasses.
Gongga said none of the kids are short -sighted.
That sounds unbelievable.
If you consider that the rate of nearsightedness in the schools in China's cities is as high as 80%.
The kids were playing a five -a -side football pitch.
The school covers an area the size of about five football grounds.
From the campus, I could see beautiful snow -capped mountains.
The football pitch, the teaching and dormitory buildings, the canteen and basketball gym were all built in the last few years.
All subjects are taught here according to the national curriculum, plus the Tibetan language.
My name is Kattuu Munju, I'm 8 years old in the grade 1.
Kind of a babe. Know who I am.
My favorite subject is the Tibet ne has.
Mh, have you found me?
You have to take video You can't do MukherINAmann, you're not Captain.
He told me he wants to become a driver when he grows up.
Among all the kids I talked with, a 14 -year -old Cham 'olomba was the most affluent in Chinese.
Her aim is to pass the entrance exam to attend the branch school of Minzou University in Hai Dong City in northeast Qinghai.
I told my parents when I grow up, I would definitely want to find a good job and make a lot of money so that I can take them to visit many places.
Gunga said the kids between seven and 16 years old are all from herders' families.
Many of their parents didn't get much of an education, but they're eager to send their kids to school.
They say nowadays nothing is possible without knowledge and basic communication skills, like going shopping in cities, seeing a doctor, using a phone or even still working as a hersmene.
Everybody gets an education today.
You cannot grow up at good for nothing.
Everybody gets an education today.
We'll see how it develops.
Anyway, we don't want them to live like us and stay here forever.
We don't mind if our boy can make it and pursue his dreams somewhere away from us.
Mado Township has a nomadic herdsman population of nearly 6 ,000.
Herding yaks and cattle traditionally for generations, they scatter across a vast land of some 13 ,000 square kilometers an area almost the size of New York state.
The population density is 2 people per square kilometre.
In 2012, a few short -staffed village schools in Mardure merged.
And the students and teachers moved here to integrate into the township primary school.
These kids come from 16 communities across Mardure.
Some of them have to travel 100 kilometres to attend school, And a few others even more than 200 km from their home on the pasture.
I asked Zhang Zuqilin, the kid's caregiver, what 100 km mean in this place?
It means it's very, very far.
You use like two hours at most to drive 100 km in the county.
Here it takes you at least four or even five hours due to the poor road conditions.
In case it snows heavily, you may not even make it.
I attended boarding school in the county when I was a kid and went back home only once a semester was over.
My parents picked me up on a motorcycle.
It was super cold, your whole body quickly went numb.
It's only because we live too far away, not that your parents don't love or care about you.
They simply have no choice." Sixth grader Chamelonba said it's okay if she cannot make it home for a week.
But if it's 2 weeks in a row, I would feel lonely.
Especially when my schoolmates go back home at the weekend.
Then I start to miss home.
Sometimes, I would cry.
Santo Tzireng said since he used to be a boulder himself, he could feel her pain.
That's why I care so much about these kids.
I know how much it hurts.
We have a kid who was a day student for the first five years, but became a boarding student in grade six, because his family moved to a remote posture.
He was not used to it, and And every night he came to me, crying.
How did you comfort him?
I asked. I sat next to him and let him cry for a while.
Yeah you shouldn't interrupt his mood if you really understand him.
Otherwise he'd feel even worse.
I would just stay with him and talk him out of it when he's done crying.
For the same reason, Gunga said neither can the 14 teachers and other staff members go home every day after work.
They all give 120 per cent at work.
Each teaches 20 -30 class hours every week.
The teacher's average age is 27.
Many are newly recruited.
But they won't be here for long.
Normally, they will choose to leave after getting married.
After all, it's too hard to take care of both your children and parents if you continue to work here like this.
That's quite understandable.
32 -year -old math teacher Mao Jie -ling from Xining the provincial capital is the only Han Chinese here.
She said she found it hard to adapt when she arrived two years ago after getting a job offer.
If it were not for a headmaster who helped me in time and brought me medicine and oxygen, I could have died due to altitude sickness and carbon monoxide poisoning.
And when the kids learned that I come from Siening and couldn't speak Tibetan, they I tried really hard to learn and talk to me in Chinese.
They would come to my dormitory and stay with me for quite a while and ask, are you used to living here?
Have you caught a cold?
Do you miss home? Are you going back to Xining?
When they return to school after the weekend, they would always bring me snacks and milk from home.
These kids, Headmaster Gonga and colleagues, they all helped me so much.
I think that's why I'm still here." Tsang Do Tsuien said he too had thought about leaving, shortly after he began to work here.
But gradually, you become so attached to these kids.
You want to stay with them.
Indeed, being with them makes you so happy.
They try their best to be good to you… So long as they go home, they will always bring you back something.
Even if it's a candy, you know, they don't have a lot of candies like the kids in the county, but even if they have just one candy, they would bring it to me.
That's most heartwarming.
Are the kids happy?
Truly, they are. They are very happy.
When it's not snowing, Gunka and the teachers join the kids for jogging at 6 in the morning.
After school, the campus becomes a wonderland of excitement and joy.
The kids and teachers, everybody is here, participating in war games, traditional rope skipping which I enjoyed a lot as a kid myself.
Unexclusively, for them Guo Zhuangwu, the traditional singing and dancing of the Tibetan people.
They read together in the evening, in each classroom is a library corner, where I found cartoon books in both Chinese and the Tibetan language.
And fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm.
Play football, that's their favourite.
Boys and girls, the pupils and teachers, Zander Zrenz said they always play together after homework is done.
Sometimes when there's wifi, I will watch a football match on my phone together with the kids.
Though real -time a commentary of the game is obvious provided in the show, I would anyway comment on it again for the kids, after the match.
Most of us are fans of Leno Messi.
The kids don't have mobile phones.
More do they have TV to watch at school.
Their connection with the outside world is their teachers and parents' phones and TV at home, when the signal is good on their family posture.
If weather permits, they go back home during the weekend.
It's true, I'm not kidding.
Seeing I looked surprised, Cha Ma Nung Pa told me again what she does to help at home.
I washed dishes and helped my parents wash their hair and feet.
Sometimes I help her the kettle and yaks.
It's not a tough job.
So long as they don't run off to our neighbor's pasture.
I pick wildflowers while I let them graze on grass.
You can do whatever you want.
Then you feel most and truly free.
You sit there quietly, listening to the sound of catagrassy, the running creek in the spring, and the birds chirping.
Peaceful, you just keep on listening, just like that.
It's such a delightful feeling.
Looking at her while she was saying this to me, I suddenly realized why Gunga, Mau Jinying and Tsang Boxarin, everyone I talked to would tell me that the kids here are different.
Different from any kids they've met elsewhere.
When the caregiver first said that to me, I didn't get it, and asked him to be more specific.
I don't know how to explain.
It's beyond words, not even in the Tibetan language.
But if you look into their eyes, you will understand.
The only thing you see is purity and innocence.
Yes, he is right. I see in their eyes the pure sky of the Qinghai Xizan plateau.
Choma Longba told me her happiest experience, though, was the first time she travelled a long way from home.
It was when I went to Beijing.
Mao Jilin, the Han Chinese teacher from Xingying, said she was very impressed by the kid's curiosity and their longing to see the outside world.
They all know that I'm from Xingying, so they'd come to ask me why I had come to teach them from so far away.
What's it like in Xining?
How are kids there, different from us?
How did they study at school?
I would show them pictures of the kids there and said to them, if you work hard, you would make it to the branch school of Minsu University.
From there, you can advance further ahead to an even bigger world.
I think to them. The brunch school is now the biggest goal.
And Xining is the farthest.
Their holy land. Like New York and London to many Western country kids, I guess.
I want to become a teacher to help other kids.
I want to become a doctor.
Xi worms. To go to the painting and become a pot Turb� allure.
That's entered in my painting.
Mar Death Walk is now the only township without dependable electricity supply in the county.
The headmaster said a stable power supply service is expected to be provided soon.
Yeah, I'm ready, we are fully prepared for the day.
With a reliable power supply and Internet access, we'll be able to launch web -based multimedia teaching so that the kids will be able to obtain lessons and lectures given by teachers in other places such as Xin Yin.
Then will install the heating system.
These are two of my biggest tasks this year.
Both teaching and learning will be greatly announced if multimedia teaching is used here.
Our gap with the outside world will be significantly narrowed.
Though many of the teachers and caregivers want the kids to reap the benefits of connection and conveniences brought by the tech link to world, I noticed a hint of concern and a hope that the most the precious thing to their hearts will remain intact.
Cheng Duxiren said when he attended primary school in the county, he was addicted to internet gaming.
We were too young to control ourselves, and often played chewing to go to the internet bars.
We don't have such children here.
It's not a bad thing to touch these things at a later age when you are better at controlling yourself.
The kids will be able to understand what's good or bad when they finish primary school.
Chimee Wangmoo, who has taught them Chinese for two years, said the Internet has its pros and cons.
Though we live in a harsh natural environment, the kids are honest and kind -hearted.
In a little about a sophisticated outside world and thus have a quality that's really found in those growing up in urban areas, I hope they'll keep it all always.
I hope they will learn good and keep evil away.
And when modern technology makes its way to the plateau and the ancient way of life and brings people closer to the bigger world, will they, the teachers, stay longer, I wonder?
Zhang Duoziren told me he has no plans to leave for now.
I still want to work here and keep the kids company.
Do you have a sense of achievement working here?
I asked. He thought for a moment.
I stayed up the whole night several times to look after the kids who fell sick.
Does that count? Chime Wamu said teachers keep coming and leaving the school all the time.
It'll be good for the kids, it will stay and teach them uninterrupted from grid 1 to 6.
I'm determined to hold on unless there are big changes in my life.
If I get sick, then I don't know.
Mao Jinling is now head of a teaching and research group.
If you get to far and do a good job in this place it's worthwhile.
Gunga has worked here for nine years.
Married with two kids, he goes back home to Xi Ning only during holidays, or occasionally when a business trip happens to take him to the city.
5 months ago, he went back when his wife gave birth to their second son.
He returned to the school three days after he was born.
Well, it's life. You have to make a choice.
I want these kids here to have a good childhood.
Then, looking at those children, he went on.
How shall I put it?
They've never been anywhere.
If they get chance to travel, whatever they see is normal to them.
Every time I see that, I feel heartbroken for them.
So, I want them to get out of the mountains.
I want them to travel and see the world.
