by Xinhua writers Yuan Yueming, Han Chaoyang and Wang Linyuan

ZHENGZHOU, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Mosquitoes and bugs were the first things that greeted Yan Zixuan when she arrived at her classroom for the first time last year.

"The door opened with a squeak and mosquitoes and bugs swarmed out," Yan, 26, recalled the experience. "I will never forget it."

Yan left her job in the city a year ago to teach at Dingzhai Elementary School in Fengqiu County, central China's Henan Province, as part of a rural teaching program.

Since 2006, China has been recruiting college graduates like Yan to teach in rural schools in central and western regions for three years and the central government fully funds their salaries. In 2018, the country plans to recruit 90,000 such teachers.

Despite a bumpy start, Yan said she grew fond of her job.

Fengqiu County is a state-level poverty-stricken county. There are around 90 students in Dingzhai Elementary School, and many of them were left behind by their parents who migrated to the cities for work.

A year ago, the school offered only Chinese, math, and English classes, and English was taught by substitute teachers from middle schools in the county seat.

The classrooms had insufficient lighting, filthy floors, and stained walls. Children often had runny nose and dirty hands.

Yan bought washbasins and handkerchiefs for the students, teaching them to wash their hands and clean their faces regularly. She believes good personal hygiene can help improve the students' self-esteem and confidence.

She also cleared out the unused chairs and desks in the classroom, installed a new light bulb, swept the floor, and cleaned the walls.

Yan studied fine arts in the college and in her spare time she created a painting featuring a whale in her dorm.

"The students love that painting," Yan said. "They were eager to pursue beauty and knowledge."

Later she started a calligraphy class, painting class and Chinese culture class for the children.

Now students' paintings hang on the classroom walls, some with traditional Chinese poems as captions.

"The countryside is no place for vanity," said Yan. "I feel pure and close to nature here."

Ren Mingjie, another teacher enrolled in the program, has been working at an elementary school in Fengqiu for four years since graduating from college.

After class, Ren often volunteers to help the students with their homework, plays chess and Rubik's cube with them.

He has seven thick notebooks, journaling in detail his life teaching the students.

"Young teachers have enriched the lives of rural children and passed on their positive attitude," said He Jinlong, head of the local education and physical education bureau.

Henan Province plans to recruit 15,500 teachers in the program in 2018, most of them are under 30. In 2017, 87.4 percent of the teachers chose to stay at the rural school after three years.

"We are coming to where we are needed the most," Ren said. "We should be like a torch, lighting up the way ahead for these rural children."