Wang Xiaoping visits a school, which uses a textbook compiled by her project, in Sichuan province. CHINA DAILY

When the draft is finished, she organizes a meeting where writers read out their texts to groups of locals and experts, so they can offer suggestions.

Wang said the textbooks differ from other school books, not only in terms of content but also in the way children can learn from them. Every one has a complete story with a leading character and several supporting ones and the reader is taken on a tour, through them, of interesting and unusual details of local people's lives.

"I attach great importance to the students' interaction and participation," Wang said.

"The purpose of regional cultural education is to stimulate young people to think of the relations between themselves and their hometowns, and between the past and the future."

The support of local governments has been crucial. "For example, were it not for the powerful support of Liu Zuoming, the Party chief in Aba (Tibetan prefecture in Sichuan province), regional cultural education would not have spread so quickly in this vast area," she said.

Late last year Liu said at a meeting about education in Aba: "Regional education is of vital significance in protecting ethnic cultures that face big challenges amid fast social and economic development."

Wang believes the effort is having an impact. She said children in Minqin, Gansu province, now strongly want to fight desertification. In Lijiang, Yunnan, children living beside the Lashihai wetland worry that excessive tourism will harm the environment.

At 69, Wang hopes someone will carry on the tradition she has started.