A retired teacher from Hengyang in China's Hunan province who was recognized as a national role model for the part she played in developing education in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has died at the age of 99.

According to the Red Cross Society of China's Hunan Branch, Huang Houyu, who spent 33 years teaching in Xinjiang, passed away in hospital in Hengyang on Dec 17.

Fulfilling her longstanding wishes, her corneas were retrieved for possible transplantation, while her body was donated to Central South University's Xiangya School of Medicine in Changsha, the capital of Hunan, for medical research.

In 1951, Huang joined thousands of other women from Hunan in a national campaign to support the development of the Xinjiang region and, in early 1953, she volunteered as one of the first teachers at a newly-established school in the region. To aid the school's development, she used her savings to buy basic teaching supplies for 80 children.