SHANGHAI, CHINA - Would you swop your apartment for a new school in a disaster-ravaged city?

A retired teacher in Shanghai just did, auctioning her apartment for 4.5 million yuan (S$890,000) and donating all the money to build a school in the earthquake-battered Sichuan province, reported Xinhua.

Shen Cuiying, 61, a widow who formerly taught at a school for the deaf and dumb, sold her apartment in a charity auction last Thursday. She hopes to raise funds to build a quake-resistant school in Dujiangyan, Sichuan.

A local company bought the three-room apartment, which has a floor space of 148sq m. Said Ms Shen: "My apartment can give traumatised children a strong school. It's quite worthy."

She retired from teaching in 1991 and bought the apartment - one of two that she owns - in 2001. The apartment used to bring her a monthly rent of about 8,000 yuan.

Ms Shen herself lives in the other apartment, and survives on a pension of less than 2,000 yuan.

Netizens have praised her selflessness and acclaimed her as "the best retired teacher in history".

Ms Shen had donated 2,000 yuan to the local Red Cross Society shortly after the May 12 earthquake, which has claimed more than 69,000 lives.

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