"Zhang is not in good health and has many chores, so we used the 30-to 60-minute break after her morning routine to talk, which enabled us to hear more stories about the school and its students," Fei says.

One of the most notable stories is Zhang's commitment to trek deep into the mountains to visit the village homes of her students during vacations, and offer them and their families encouragement, which she has been doing for over 10 years. Despite pain and disease, she walked more than 110,000 kilometers and reached over 1,500 families between 2008 and 2020, according to the Guangming Daily.

In a bid to uncover deeper insight and broaden their understanding, Yuan and the team retraced many of Zhang's routes and over the span of a year, interviewed her friends, former students and their families.

"The aspect of Zhang that engenders the most respect is her demonstration of how an ordinary individual can maximize the realization of their dreams through perseverance, fearlessness and effective problem-solving," Yuan says.

Although the esteemed principal has become a well-known figure since receiving the medal and making headlines, Yuan says that Zhang continues to care for each of her students.

During a later visit, Yuan was surprised to hear Zhang referring to the previous year's college admission cutoff scores, and carefully reviewing the mock exam results of senior students.