Mobile classroom on a motorcycle

Huang Shengen, an elementary school teacher in Yichun, East China's Jiangxi province. [Photo/Xinhua]

"I tried again and again, but it didn't work. Zeng asked me what she should do if she couldn't attend classes online," Huang recalled.

In order not to let her down, Huang came up with the idea of a mobile classroom and showed up at Zeng's home the next day with a blackboard tied to his motorcycle, a ruler and a chalk box in the trunk.

Every morning since then, Huang rode some 15 km up the mountain road to Zeng's home. Class started with the roaring of an approaching motorcycle when the girl rushed out to her teacher.

Huang's motorcycle trunk has become a "treasure case," with school objects, boiled eggs, snacks, toys and medical supplies such as surgical masks.

And the Hello Kitty-style alarm clock was used as a school bell.

"Even if there is only one teacher and one student in the class, a 'sense of ritual' is still needed," Huang said.

The teacher and the student would play homemade "bowling" together in the front yard after class, throwing a softball at 10 pins made of plastic bottles. It was one of the leisure activities Huang prepared for his student.

Huang also moved his art class to the rape field. The teacher and the student would set up an art board, took out a paintbrush and drew the yellow rape flowers and the colorful landscape of the mountain village.

Huang lives alone in the countryside while his son hoped that he could move to the city as soon as possible. With only two years before retirement, Huang can not leave his only student alone.

"I'm a rural teacher, and my job is to teach her so that she might someday leave the mountains and live a better life," Huang said.