Students shiver in freezing classrooms

The thermometer in an elementary school classroom in Guizhou province displays 7 C, and Chinese language teacher Wu Minglan can see her breath as she blows over her cold fingers.

One of the students has a bag containing hot water that he clutches for a while before passing it on.

"I feel terrible seeing my students pass around the hot-water bottle, they are supposed to study in a warm place," said Wu, 44, a member of the Bouyei ethnic group.