Teacher finds love, life calling in Tibet

Leader of volunteers finds fulfilling career working with children who are eager to learn

Zhang Jingchuan said that seeing children smile in Tibet is like finding the most beautiful flowers in the world.

For the past three years, Zhang, 48, a teacher from Henan Normal University, has led three teams of student volunteers who are teaching in the Tibet autonomous region.

A nature lover and backpacker, Zhang said he fell in love with Tibet while traveling in the region in the summer of 2001. So in 2012, when the university launched the teaching volunteer program in the region's Mainling county, Zhang made the decision almost immediately to become leader of the program.

Since then, he has made 26 trips to Tibet, traveling from Lhasa, the region's capital city, to Mainling, between the Nyainqentanglha and the Himalaya Mountains.

"I love Tibet for its blue skies, snowy mountains and colorful culture," Zhang said.

Above all, as a teacher, he said, he can easily find a sense of fulfillment.

"Teachers are needed in Tibet, especially in Chinese, math, English and music," said Zhang, who teaches PE classes and trains soccer teams in primary schools.

"It is always encouraging to see the growth of Tibetan children and our teachers. They help each other and have become more independent, learning to share and to love this land," he said.

His WeChat account records his life in Tibet: the scenery of grasslands, clouds and blue skies; cooking dinner together; training soccer teams in the rain. It also includes his Tibetan girlfriend, Tsepel.

In his 27 years of teaching, he has left home and contributed to the teaching volunteer program for 15 of them, in the rural areas of Henan, Sichuan and Tibet. And he lived a busy single life until a pair of bright eyes in Tibet found him.

As a Tibetan teacher, Tsepel met Zhang by chance when she took four cans of honey from Lhasa, her hometown, to a primary school in Mainling for a volunteer teacher last year.

The love between them came out little by little.

"He is very nice to the people around him. I feel at ease when staying with him," the 24-year-old said.

This Tibetan New Year, Zhang got a warm welcome in Tsepel's family. What's more, as a good cook, Zhang also won enthusiastic approval from her family.

"I feel very lucky to find the true love in this land. People here are friendly. When I learned that her family had approved of us, I called my mother with the good news at once," he said.

Zhang always gets nearly 5 kg of peanuts, his favorite snack, from his mother's hands before leaving home. While eating the peanuts, he misses his hometown.

In May, he took Tsepel to visit his family in Zhengzhou. As they left, Zhang's 74-year-old mother let him take the peanuts as usual - an acknowledgment that her son would stay in the region.

"I miss my mother, my family, while Tsepel will not leave Tibet, and here I have my career which I am passionate about. Tibet is my second home," Zhang said.

"Children in Tibet are eager to know about the outside world. They want to learn more cultures outside," Zhang added.

"Sitting in my office, I can see the snow mountains outside the window. It is beautiful," Zhang said.

On rainy nights, when Zhang looks out the window and misses his hometown, he switches on his phone, sending a message to his family, saying, "Are you OK?"

qixin@chinadaily.com.cn