A Shenzhen woman who won 50,000 yuan (US$6,000) in a national photographic competition donated the prize money to the seven-year-old Tibetan girl featured in the winning photo.

The Beijing Youth Daily reported on March 21 that Yuan Wenli had been reunited with Norzin Wangmo at a donation ceremony the previous day.

It was held at Wangmo's new school in Hongyuan County, which is in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Yuan photographed the girl last July despite being unable to communicate with her because of language differences. It won her the prize in January this year, the Shenzhen Economic Daily first reported in early February.

The picture was Yuan's first work of photographic art, named Huo ("puzzled" in Chinese), the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily said. The digital camera she used to take it had only been bought the day before her trip.

She told the audience at the Beijing award ceremony about the girl and said she would give her the money, and began looking for her. She asked for help from the Hongyuan government and the Aba Daily reported her efforts, while Yuan herself toured the county in a hired car.

She came across the girl's aunt in late January after traveling more than 100 kilometers through a snowstorm.

Over a cup of tea, the herdswoman was shocked to discover that the girl in Yuan's photo was her sister's daughter. Unfortunately, bad weather prevented a visit to the girl's family straightaway.

The girl, who was born to a poor herding family and has a four-year-old brother, was transferred to Hongyuan's Project Hope school.

On the day of the ceremony, Norzin Wangmo, wearing a red Tibetan gown and two plaits with pink flowers, was recognized by her new schoolmates who had read the news about her. The girl wasn't shy and chatted happily with them.

The Hongyuan County Education Bureau has been entrusted with the prize money to pay her school fees every semester.

"Norzin Wangmo's parents only planned for her pre-school studies," said Telho, the girl's uncle. "However, Yuan Wenli has changed her whole life."

(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, March 29, 2005)