Da Ke, the director, added: "When we arrived at Shuanghe elementary school, I had regrets about taking the job. The floor was muddy, and when I woke up in the morning, bird droppings were beside my nose."

Tekeuchi himself noted: "Transportation in Liangshan has improved a great deal compared with a decade ago when I first came here. I want the world to know that China is not just metropolitan Beijing and Shanghai. There are also poor places. There are great differences of the living conditions of the 1.4 billion Chinese population."