(Ecns.cn)--For most small Chinese villages with populations of over 500 there is little need for two primary schools, but in a remote village in Dandong city of China's Northeast Liaoning Province, there is a special case. And it's not because there are too many students.
Two elementary schools have been built on either side of a small street in Dandong. One is for the "common" students; the other is for a 14-year-old AIDS patient nicknamed Xiao Feng.
For about seven years, the boy has studied alone in his specially-designed school, a 10-square-meter "charity school" built by villagers and officials to separate him from other students because of their fear of AIDS.
The boy and his tutor, a 63-year-old retired teacher named Wang Lijun, are the only two people at the school. Xiao Feng does not have classmates and friends, so his teacher must play many roles other than educator.
Innocent leftover
Nobody dares come close to the boy born with the fatal disease, despite the fact that it was not his choice and that AIDS cannot be transmitted through normal contact.
Xiao Feng's father was a sailor in a foreign fishing boat who worked in the United States.
The first year when Xiao Feng's father came back to the small village, he brought a large amount of money with him and met Xiao Feng's mother soon after. The two young people got married, but the work did not permit Xiao Feng's father to stay home for long.
After a few years, when Xiao Feng's father returned to China he was diagnosed with HIV. Three months later he was officially informed of his illness, which made him the first AIDS patient in Dandong City.
Soon a small group of employees from the county epidemic prevention station visited Xiao Feng's mother, and secretly checked to see if the woman had been infected. The results were devastating.
Although their families pressured them to divorce, the couple continued their marriage and eventually decided to have a baby. In November 1997, Xiao Feng was born – carrying the HIV virus.
Xiao Feng's life was normal until he turned seven, when a local newspaper discovered his family's secret and leaked it to the village.
On his first day back to school, the other parents demanded that the boy be removed. In order to satisfy the boy's right to be educated, the village government built him the "charity school."
