While many Chinese teachers retire at the age of 55, 76-year-old Ren Zuyong has been working as a high school teacher for 55 years and has made the record books.

In February, Guinness World Records confirmed Renis the longest continuously serving senior high school teacher in the world. He said he will continue to work as long as his health permits.

In 1959, Ren graduated as the top student from a high school in Xinghua, Taizhou, Jiangsu province. Family finances and the political atmosphere of the time caused him to abandon his dream of attending Peking University, and he started work as a teacher.

His career turned out to be successful. He was elected as one of the top 24 teachers in Jiangsu province. One of his students scored the highest mark ever achieved in the gaokao, China's college entrance exam.

"A high school teacher cannot do great things that will go down in history," said Ren. "But we can influence our students, who may one day be able to do that."

He has published 40 books and more than 300 essays on teaching methods, cultural research and research on celebrities living in Jiangsu province. His work has also been published in Hong Kong and the United States.

"Life is short, but through my students I can pass on my thoughts, and that is another form of immortality," he said.

A teaching colleague, Liu Yongfu, said Ren has earned the respect of all the teachers at Xinghua Middle School.

"The characters he writes on the blackboard are so beautiful that they look like those on the copybooks for calligraphy," Liu said.

"The students in his class always seem relaxed but often score the highest marks," said Liu. "It must be a pleasure to be one of his students."

But teaching has not always been plain sailing for Ren. He found it difficult when he had to learn simplified Chinese characters.

"I had to learn like a primary school student," he said. "I put the simplified characters and the traditional ones next to each other, and repeated writing them until I made no more mistakes."

Though his work requires much attention and energy, Ren said the thought of quitting has never occurred to him. When he reached retirement age, he was invited by top high schools in Shanghai and Nanjing to work for them. Some offered him twice his salary and an expensive apartment. Ren turned the offers down.

"I'm happy with my life, and I want to contribute more to my hometown," he said.

Ren does not drink or smoke. His leisure time is spent reading and practicing calligraphy.

"I maintain a healthy lifestyle, which enables me to keep on working," he said. "Every day, I ride my bicycle for more than one hour to go to work and come home.

"I weighed 60 kilograms when I was 20 years old, and I'm still 60 kilograms. My blood pressure, blood sugar and blood fat are all normal, and my brain thinks faster than many young people."

It was Ren's students who helped him to translate his material into English for submission to Guinness World Records in Britain. He is modest about the record.

"I want to set an example for the other teachers to surpass," he said. "It will also motivate me to do better."

cangwei@chinadaily.com.cn