"Thank you for facilitating customs clearance so that international students who have been suspended for three years can return to the school they have longed for so as to learn and grow together with Chinese children and win friendship and trust." On 4 December, Sun Jialiang, principal of Yinjing Border Defence Primary School, came to the Yinjing branch of the Ruili Border Inspection Station of the Yunnan Border Inspection General Station and presented a bright red banner to the police.

"Yinjing" is named after a crystal-clear well on the China-Myanmar border. The water is crystal clear, regardless of wind, rain or scorching sun, just like the silverware hanging from the costumes of the ethnic minorities stationed there. For decades, this well has been an important source of drinking water for people living on the border between China and Myanmar. It is a shared testimony to the “paukphaw friendship” between China and Myanmar. With the passage of time, the border villages have been revitalised and "the Border Defence Primary School" has been built next to this well. The story of the Immigration Management Police and the Border Defence Primary School begins here.

"Hello, uncle!" An 8-year-old girl, Xianghan, called politely to the immigration police, who stood guard every day as she walked through the Yinjing Passage on her way to school. Xianghan's Mandarin was very standard, and it was hard to imagine that she was a primary school student from Myanmar.

“When she first came to school, she didn't know a word of Chinese, was shy and didn't like to communicate with her classmates. Later, she learned and played with her classmates, and as time went by, she became more cheerful and her academic performance was at the top of the class.” introduced by Headmaster Zhou.

In December 2008, in order to solve the problem of "difficult schooling" for the children of border residents inside and outside the border area, Yinjing Substation took the initiative to coordinate with the relevant departments of the residents to create a tripartite model of "local Party committee and government, border guards and education departments". An "international school" - Yinjing Border Guard Primary School with "perfect facilities, standard management and rich border characteristics" has been established on the basis of Yinjing Primary School. As a beautiful witness of the friendship between China and Myanmar, Yinjing Border Guard Primary School is also known as 'China's first border guard primary school'.

Every day, the “international students” wear “priority immigration cards'”on their chests and walk back and forth along Boundary Marker No. 71, which divides Yinjing Village in two and has become a beautiful scenery along the Sino-Myanmar border. Here, Myanmar students and Chinese students receive the same compulsory education and study the same curriculum, and these Myanmar students are also affectionately called “little international students”.

“In the past 46 years since the station was built, Boundary Marker No. 71 is not only a geographical marker, but also a historical testimony of our generations of Ruili border inspection people who have put down roots in the border, fought for the border and built the border. “ Guo Qingyi, Party Secretary of Yinjing Substation, said from the bottom of his heart.

At the Spring Entrance Ceremony on March 5 this year, Yinjing Border Guard Primary School, located on the southwest border of China, held a grand welcome ceremony in which the local Party committee government and Yinjing Substation presented brand new school bags and stationery to 17 newly enrolled Burmese pupils. Over the past 16 years of joint construction between the police and the school, Yinjing Border Guard Primary School has accepted 174 Burmese school-age children to study at the school and Xianghan is the 174th student.

"China and Myanmar are connected by mountains and water and are friendly neighbours." This is the China I learned about in my language textbooks, Xianghan said in a childish voice and smiled.

Walking into the classroom, if it were not for the teacher's introduction, it would be impossible to tell who was a Chinese pupil and who was a Burmese pupil, as they listened as attentively as they spoke and played together in the classroom without distinction. Sun Jialiang, the headmaster, said there was no difference between the countries of the children at the school, who spoke the same language and got along well. Third grader Huanliang lives in Heluan village in Myanmar, one kilometre from the border. When asked which poems he has learnt, he recites the Tang poem “Zeng Wanglun” fluently. Dressed in a white blouse and green skirt, Huanliang can't hide his inner joy when talking about school life: "Every day at school is very fulfilling, I get along well with many Chinese children, and I get to drink milk and eat snacks.” Myanmar primary school students at Yinjing Border Guard Primary School enjoy China's compulsory education and advanced educational resources free of charge, and are all covered by China's "two exemptions and one subsidy" and "nutritional breakfast improvement" programmes.

Nowadays, Yinjing Border Guard Primary School has become a beautiful witness of friendship between China and Myanmar and continues the history of friendship between the two countries for generations, fully demonstrating the image of a great country and showing the role of a great country. In December 2016, Yinjing Border Guard Primary School was awarded the "National Model School for the Promotion of National Unity and Progress" by the National Ethnic Affairs Commission of the People's Republic of China. In August 2023, it was named the "National Model School for National Defence Education" by the Ministry of Education and the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission.

"We study at a unique border primary school, where solidarity and mutual assistance bring us together like a family. Sharing the same ancestry and kinship is an unchanging bond that connects us deeply. In the same world, in the same classroom, we witness the enduring “paukphaw” friendship between our two nations and a history of lasting amity for generations." During the rest of the lesson at Yinjing Border Primary School, the children's tender voices sang out loudly the "Border Defence Primary School Song", jointly created by the Yinjing Sub-station and the school, singing the hope that the Sino-Myanmar “paukphaw” friendship will be carried on from generation to generation and echo along the border for a long time.

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(Editors: Reena, Ines)