Pan Yulian's face lit up when 8-year-old Munisar Parmut opened her small hand to reveal a few precious cherries - a gift to a special teacher more than nine times her age. Pan, 74, gave the girl a hug before sending her into the classroom in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's Kashgar prefecture.

Pan has been tutoring children from all ethnic groups in the neighborhood - at no cost - after school hours for 25 years. Despite her low income, she managed to turn a 26-square-meter room in her house on the outskirts of Shule county into a classroom.

Munisar is one of the 2,000 children who have benefited over the years. She has been attending Pan's classes every day after school, and sometimes on weekends, for about a year.