A total of 101 rural teachers and 20 rural headmasters from across China received the Jack Ma Foundation's annual awards for their contributions to education at a hotel in the coastal city Sanya, Hainan province in mid-January.

The awards were created by Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, in 2015. He himself was a graduate of Hangzhou Normal University and taught at Hangzhou Dianzi University for six years before he founded his online business empire.

China could do without Alibaba or Jack Ma, but it cannot do without rural teachers, he said at the award ceremony. "Without your efforts, villages in our country would run down," he told the audience.

Many of the award winners said that it was the first time they had left their hometown, boarded flights, gone to the sea and stayed at a five-star hotel.

The key to social progress does not lie in the elite, but in the quality of the grassroots, Ma noted, adding that rural education is pivotal to China's educational improvement and rural revitalization.

For tens of millions of children living in rural areas, what they dread is not poverty, remoteness or the physical obstacles of mountains, but being forgotten, he said, calling for more attention to be given to them.

The Westin Blue Bay Resort and Spa in Hainan hosted this year's award ceremony and "Back to the Classroom" themed event.

The hotel, part of Marriott International's property portfolio, said it remained committed to serving the community and education.

Through the sponsorship, the hotel said it was partnering with the foundation to raise awareness and foster responsibility.

"We are delighted to have this chance to work with the Jack Ma Foundation to improve the education of China's rural children," said Thomas Sun, general manager of the hotel.

"Helping children and communities is important to our hotel, and follows our company's core value of 'putting people first'."

The hotel has participated in a series of charity activities, including the Marriott International "Run to Give" and golf tournament charity events, in support of Operations Smile, providing cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children.

In cooperation with the Adream Charitable Foundation, the hotel has also recruited college students from the United States to coach children in mountainous regions in Hainan and invited the children to a summer camp at the hotel.