Servicemen from the PLA Navy Bengbu Non-Commissioned Officer Academy communicate with pupils in the computer classroom in the Haiwa Hope Elementary School. (PLA Daily/Tan Lin)
Witnessing new dorms, expanded playground and paved roads and etc., the left-behind children saw new hope. On September 10, 2017, the Haiwa Hope Elementary School was completed. Later, the academy continued to provide financial support for the elementary school to build a computer room, a reading room, and buy kitchen equipment for the school canteen.
Cheng Jing is a teacher at the Haiwa Hope Elementary School. In 2018, when she learnt that the PLA Navy had built a brand-new elementary school in her hometown, without any hesitation, she quitted a well-paid job and returned to Jinzhai to become a teacher in the Haiwa Hope Elementary School.
In this small elementary school, students have access to computer, English, sports, music lessons and online teaching. The children in the remote mountain villages also have the opportunity to enjoy quality teaching resources.
“I love this blue ocean / our motherland has territorial seas so vast and magnificent…” This military song – I Love This Blue Ocean – is Cheng Jing’s ringtone, which fills her with gratitude, excitement, and love every time she hears it.
Is the mountain still far-away from the sea? “Perhaps not,” said Cheng Jing with pride and expectations for her students to grow up happily.
During the inspection, President Xi said the education of revolutionary tradition should start with children to guide them to foster the right value and right views on both the world and life.
At the Haiwa Hope Elementary School, the teachers and naval officers often told the children the heroic stories of revolutionary predecessors and the grand journey of how the PLA Navy has strengthened from scratch.
Pi Jianhong, a student at the elementary school, showed the reporters his favorite book, a photo album of ships of the Chinese PLA Navy , during the interview. He was so familiar with the weapons and equipment in the book that every detail was at his fingertips. “My dream is to join the PLA Navy and become a carrier-based aircraft pilot to protect our country’s territorial seas and airspace,” said the boy.
Shen Zhengping, head of the 4th cadet squadron of the Non-commissioned Officer Academy of the PLA Navy, is a Jinzhai native. Speaking of the development of his hometown, he said he is confident that in the future, there will be more educated young people growing up in the mountain villages like him to join the army.
