Ma Hua, only 31, disappeared in the roaring Lancang River in northwest Yunnan Province, in Southwest China, when the jeep in which he was riding went off the winding mountain road on June 20, plunging into the river.

The local government and people are still searching, even hundreds of kilometers down the river, for him and a Tibetan woman who was also in the jeep. The driver, who was found alive, now lies in a coma in hospital. It has not yet been determined what caused the vehicle to plunge into the river.

Ma's disappearance has brought grief to the hearts of thousands, particularly the local people he had worked and lived with since arriving in the area in March, over one year ago.

The former IT professional in Shanghai spent all his savings teaching at the Yongming Primary School in Deqen County, in Yunnan's Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

A graduate in international politics from Fudan University, Ma was teaching English and Chinese to 25 students in four grades.

Baimu, headmaster of the school, told Shanghai-based Wenhui Daily that Ma painted pictures illustrating English words on the classroom's walls to help the students better understand the language.

The man of letters wrote poetry and prose describing his simple life in the village -- which takes one hour to reach from Deqen County, which itself is roughly 770 kilometers northwest of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province.

Ma spent 5,000 yuan (US$630) of his own money to build a small playground for the school.

A local villager told Wenhui Daily that Ma taught English to local people so they could communicate with foreign tourists coming to see the famous Meili Snow Mountain.

"Ma Hua was a link between our village and the world outside," said Tashi Nyima, a staff member of the Deqen Tourism Bureau.

In an e-mail to his former classmates, Ma described the school where he taught. He and two local teachers relied on water melted from ice for cooking. The students helped him clear a small field behind the school so he could plant some vegetables.

Every two weeks, when he visited Deqen County, he would take a bath and send e-mails.

It was enough to be able to lie in the woods at the foot of the snow-capped mountains, listening to the birds, Ma once told Fan Wen, a Kunming-based writer who often visits Deqen.

In order to get some good shots of the mountain sunrise with the limited amount of film he could afford, Ma sometimes spent three hours climbing the mountain alone and then waited patiently for the perfect moment.

"I've seen many Han people deeply in love with Tibetan culture, but Ma is the man with the most truthful and noble heart," said Fan. "He is a brother too dear to lose."

Ma had planned to visit his parents in Tianjin Municipality in August, after some of his students had completed their studies.

(China Daily June 25, 2004)