Moving on to greener pastures

The year was 2006. Jiang Juechi finally decided to leave her Tibetan students on a remote grassland in Sichuan province and head home to East China's Anhui province.

When she finished packing and slipped out of the tent early one morning, she found her students, fellow teachers, Tibetan monks and some local residents, standing there in silence.

"They didn't speak. One man started singing a folk song, and everyone joined in. I couldn't hold back my tears. I knew I had to stay," Jiang says.