Wang Fangjun recently got on to a broadband Internet connection and downloaded an article on family planning for a school assignment. This wouldn't be noteworthy if it weren't for the fact that the girl's family is large and can barely afford food and clothing.
Students such as Wang in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region can scarcely manage to pay tuition at the Wangmin Middle School, located in the largest Muslim-inhabited region in China. However, now they can surf the Internet in the first classroom in China equipped with a broadband network.
The network was provided by China Netcom Corporation Ltd. (CNC),which plans to build a number of broadband schools in western China's poverty-stricken areas over the next three to five years. The company sees it as a way to repay the kindness of their customers.
Wangmin Middle School was placed on top of the list and a digital video broadcasting (DVB) broadband system was installed.
The school is located in Xihaigu, one of the eight poorest areas in China. More than 2.3 million people of Hui and Han nationalities live in the region. Due to poor land and an adverse climate, the per capita annual net income of local farmers is less than 600 yuan (US$72).
The children of many farmers can barely get decent food and clothing, let alone even consider using the Internet. But this gift to the village can now help students like Wang, who has four sisters, learn how to improve their lives.
"The broadband-equipped Internet brings us a colorful world we never imagined," Wang said.
Wang Junmin, president of the Wangmin Middle School, said the semiliterate parents are unable to impart knowledge to their children apart from teaching simple production skills. The broadband network brings a new world to children who have lived in the mountain range since they were born.
Six postgraduates of Shanghai-based Fudan University came to the school in 2000 to teach students how to use the computer and how to connect to the Internet.
To date, all students have become skillful net surfers and can rapidly download what they want from the Internet and send e-mails to their friends in other parts of the world.
The school is considering how to make use of the broadband system more efficiently.
CNC, founded in 1999, is promoting a broadband network service using IP technology, fiber optics and wireless accessing, as well as large-content broadband networking.
(People's Daily September 11, 2002)
