NPC deputy dedicates four decades to teaching in remote village in SW China's Yunnan

On March 5, 2026, Nong Jiagui, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, attended a group interview ahead of the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 14th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Nong is a teacher at Luosongdi Primary School in Luosongdi village, Guangnan county, southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Nong Jiagui, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), attends a group interview ahead of the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 14th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2026. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

Nong said the village was once unnamed — it had been designated as a treatment settlement for leprosy patients. When he first arrived, his instinct was to leave. But the sight of the children's eyes, filled with a longing for knowledge, made him stay.

In 1992, when his first cohort of students completed primary school, Nong could not bring himself to write "leprosy village" in the home address field of their school enrolment forms. He consulted the villagers, and together they chose a new name — Luosongdi village.

Over more than four decades as the school's sole teacher, Nong has guided 126 students from 12 classes through primary school. All of them have gone on to find their place in the workforce.

Today, the primary school has been transformed with the support of Party committees and governments at all levels, as well as people from all walks of life. The shabby building of the past has given way to a bright and spacious campus, and the once-isolated mountain village has long since left disease and poverty behind.