Hou has witnessed the improvement in village schools over the past decade－from makeshift classrooms to renovated school buildings and from shabby desks to advanced equipment, like computers. But Hou's school still suffers a teacher shortage.

"No matter how advanced a school's facilities are, it is teachers who instruct students. No matter how many fancy books are donated, it is teachers who guide students to read. If there are no teachers, computers are just a decoration and some students even use pages from books as toilet paper," Hou says with a sigh.

In November, Hou married fellow teacher Lei Yudan. The wedding photos with their students went viral on social media. They were dubbed "the most beautiful wedding photos" by people online. The couple hopes their photos will help attract quality teachers to the countryside.

On video-sharing platform Douyin, Hou posts images of his everyday life with students, which have attracted nearly 300,000 followers and garnered more than 7.3 million likes. His story has made national headlines.

"What I can do is limited. Through media coverage and social media, I hope that my story can inspire more people to understand and support rural education, especially rural teacher groups," Hou says.

Hou is among the hundreds of thousands of university graduates who apply for various volunteer programs every year to contribute to rural education in the impoverished central and western parts of China. But he is in the minority who have stayed in the countryside for more than 10 years.