She gives the needy legal aid - and dignity

Xu Hui has grown accustomed to finding vegetables and eggs - some even washed clean - hanging on her doorknob when she returns home late at night. Though the gifts do not provide clues as to who might have sent them, Xu knows they must be from one of her "clients" - generally migrant workers, people with disabilities, delinquents and their families.

Xu, 54, is director of a legal assistance center in Tongcheng county, Hubei province. She has been at the center since 1998, when it was set up by the local judicial bureau to provide legal services for the disadvantaged.

The legal adviser can barely remember how many people she's helped in the past 19 years. But the center's statistics show that in the past three years, she took on almost 190 cases and helped the disadvantaged recover over 1.6 million yuan ($246,000).