China Scene: North

Student bucks the trend with his selfless giving

Cheng Wenchao, a senior college student in Tianjin municipality, was able to pay for two girl pupils from poor rural families in Shanxi province to go to school for the past three years by gathering waste at his college.

Since 2004, he has donated all the money he has earned by collecting waste such as bottles and newspapers to the girls after visiting their hometown, a remote village where their families were too poor to afford school.