Peng Chao, 19, from Panzhihua, Sichuan province, lost both his arms in a childhood accident and has to write with his foot. Photos by Wang Chuanyuan / Xinhua

When he was 6, Peng Chao was playing in a factory in the county seat of Miyi in Sichuan province where his family lives, when he touched a live transformer. Both his arms had to be amputated after the electric shock.

Now at 19, he has become something of a national hero, because his score in the national university entrance examinations, or gaokao, which were held early last month, was 543 points, 3 points higher than Sichuan's minimum score for applicants to top universities.

Peng has applied to take a software-engineering course at Sichuan University, the top university in the province.

"Without arms, I have to enter a good university if I am to get a job," says the teenager, who has a sunny temperament and always has a smile when he talks, despite the difficulties he has had to overcome and the challenges he faces.

"Before he was discharged from the hospital where his wounds were being treated, I taught him how to use his foot to write with a pencil," says his father Peng Changfu, 49, who does odd jobs to support the family.

At first, Peng Chao could write only a dozen words at most a day. Frustrated because he found it difficult to hold a pencil between the big toe and second toe of the right foot, he would burst into tears and want to give up.

However, his father kept encouraging him and persuaded him to persevere.