At 6:40 a.m., when many Chinese cities are still slumbering, life has already started at a classroom in Shangsi Middle School. In a loud chorus, 56 girls recite an 8th-century Chinese poem about conquering a famous mountain peak.
Li Pinhui, 14, sees the classroom as her second home. She returns to her actual home in Changlong Village, Shangsi County, only twice a semester, not only because the school offers free meals, but also to spare the three-hour trip across mountain roads so she can devote more time to study.
"My goal is to be enrolled by a university in Guangdong Province upon graduation," Li said.
Attending college to change their fate is a faith shared by the class, which is composed of Yao ethnic girls from the poverty-stricken mountains of Shangsi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Schooling is not a traditional option for local Yao girls, who often quit school early to take up farming and marry. It only began changing in 2008, when the local government set up classes to exclusively enroll Yao girls.
The county now has two middle schools with all-girl classes, one for Yao girls and the other for all ethnic minorities. Food, lodging and other fees are waived to encourage families to send their daughters to school.
As China vows to enrich its remaining 70 million rural population living under the national poverty line by 2020, the class also stands out as a success story for promoting rural education to fight poverty, a strategy that is gaining momentum in mountainous regions inhabited by ethnic minorities.
CHANGING MINDS
Local officials in Shangsi believe the battle against poverty should start by fighting ignorance.
"Better education helps children in ethnic regions broaden horizons and abandon old ways of thinking that have hindered local development," said Huang Guanle, director of the county's poverty reduction office.
Huang hopes that, after receiving college education in other cities, some students will return to their impoverished hometown bringing new ideas and technology to improve local farming and industry.
But for proponents of this approach, the very first obstacle to overcome is often the old thinking that gives short shrift to education, which is still ingrained in some rural parts of China.
In Yao communities in Shangsi, the traditional belief that women do not go to school "just as dogs don't plow the fields" is so deeply rooted that even compulsory education for girls used to rely on both the strong will of the students and persuasion from education authorities.
Shangsi responded to the problem with heavy investment, attracting students from low-income families with better schools and higher subsidies. Schools also hired female teachers who had made their way from the local villages into college to act as role models.
Most important, the girls have not failed expectations. In 2014, the county was cheered by the news that out of 100 graduates in the first all-girl classes, 76 enrolled in university, a high proportion in rural China given the relatively poor education conditions.
Schooling is now a popular option for local Yao families with daughters. According to the education bureau of Shangsi, the middle school enrollment rate of Yao girls has risen to 98.5 percent from 22.6 percent in 2004.
The dream for a better life through education shines in the heart of Jiang Qingrong, a single Yao mother of four children in Changlong Village. Sitting in her poorly-lit shanty, whose only furniture is a bed and a dining table, Jiang was adamant in her decision to send all her children to college outside the mountain.
"My eldest daughter is in the Yao all-girl class. She's our pride," the mother said. "A lack of knowledge has made my life miserable, so whatever the price may be, I must ensure good education for my children."
