Life has been rather cruel to 20-year-old Zhang Jie, from North China's Shanxi Province, who has been taking care of her disabled mother from the age of four, mostly by begging, after being abandoned by her father.

 

However, her fortunes changed for the better two years ago, when she was admitted to the Foreign Languages Department at the Shanghai University of Electric Power, the Shanghai-based Dragon TV reported.

 

Sixteen years ago, Zhang's mother Jiang Lin had a fall that left her paralyzed. Her father left the family several months later, in their hometown in Yangquan.

 

Jiang Lin then locked herself up with her daughter with the intention of ending their lives. A neighbor who broke open the door, found the pair in utter desperation.

 

This neighbor then got them a tabletop fixed with trolley wheels, which Zhang pulled on the streets with her mother on it, to beg for their living.

 

"Even when we became sick, we never sought treatment, as we had no money," Zhang recalled.

 

But they lived in a sympathetic community. The Yangquan Mining Area Primary School provided Zhang with free schooling.

 

For 14 years, she supported the pair by begging.

 

In August 2005, when she received an enrollment notice from Shanghai, nobody could believe it.

 

One month later, Zhang pushed a wheelchair seating her mother and arrived in Shanghai for a new life.

 

Teachers and students at the university showed them special care and they managed to rent a small place near Zhang's university in Nanhui District.

 

Everyday, Zhang would go to the local market to pick up discarded vegetables and return home to cook meals. Even her toothbrush was collected from a rubbish heap.

 

Her tutor told her she should try and earn some money instead of relying on donations and the school helped her by arranging for her to work at the School Activities Center, to distribute a local newspaper to campus subscribers and to clean the school library at night.

 

All this earns her 400 yuan (US$51) a month.

 

"I think my university has done its duty," Zhang said, adding that her teachers always encourage her to learn skills that will help her lead an independent life in future.

 

In the past two years, Zhang has topped her class and earned many scholarships. She now sees hopes for a better life for her and her mother.

 

Zhang is only one of 2.4 million poverty-hit college students -- some 20 percent of the college cohort -- on Chinese campuses on the mainland.

 

(China Daily September 1, 2007)