Beijing - The concrete walls of the rural, unheated schoolhouse bear posters of the late communist leader Mao Zedong. But the school owes its very existence to the most capitalist of sources — the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company Inc.

The Tianjin Project Hope Primary School, about 75 miles south of Beijing, is a case study in the way modern China has learned to live with a complex mix of a repressive communist rule and a thriving free-market economy.

Coca-Cola funds 58 Project Hope schools throughout the country of 1.3 billion people. The schools educate 23,000 students in poor, rural areas who otherwise would likely grow up illiterate.

"We believe that if there is one thing business can contribute to China's development, it would be education," said Steve K.W. Chan, chairman of Coca-Cola China Limited. "China's continued growth depends on having an educated class."

The company, which sold 24 billion Coca-Cola products in the country last year (nearly a case per person), also knows good business when it sees it. That's one reason the world's best-known brand is willing to spend big bucks to create some serious goodwill in the world's fastest growing economy.

"We totally separate our community work from our business," Chan said. "If we do get a good reaction, it's a bonus."

The company has gotten a very good reaction over the last 15 years or so from the powers-that-be in Beijing. Coke now operates 36 bottling plants in China, two in Beijing, and is still expanding. China is Coke's fourth-largest market, and 30,000 Chinese work for the company.

The Project Hope effort has been so successful for Coke that on Thursday, Georgia's highest-profile trade delegation to ever visit China stopped by for a visit, with first lady Mary Perdue leading the procession. A large contingent of Chinese and U.S. journalists covered the event.

"Just as the name Project Hope implies, we know education provides the hope for a better future," said Perdue, speaking through an interpreter as a chilly wind blew across the school yard where the school's 200 young students sat quietly, staring intently and occasionally waving at the strangers. Officials said it was the first time foreigners had visited the school.

The school serves 10 villages in the mountainous region. Many of the students live in primitive housing without heat or running water.

Perdue and the Georgia trade officials toured an art class and a computer class at the school. Students later performed two dances for the delegation and were allowed to ask questions of the delegates seated in front of a huge welcome sign whose dominant color was Coca-Cola red. Portable toilets had been brought in for the delegates and journalists — the students use outdoor toilets.

Some of the questions asked by the students: How far is America from here? Do Americans have a spring festival?

But the answer that drew a sudden chorus of ooohs and ahs from the children came from the first lady. One child asked Perdue how many children she had. China enforces a strict one-child per family policy in an effort to control the population, and few of the students have siblings.

"I have four children and eight grandchildren," Perdue said as the students turned to each other to express their disbelief.

One young boy bluntly asked Athens businesswoman Maxine Burton her age.

"How old do you think I am?" Burton shot back. The young questioner went silent as the delegates burst into laughter. After a long pause, he replied: "38."

"I'm just a little older than that," said the 57-year-old Burton. "But thank you so much."

The students and delegates exchanged gifts as their morning together ended. The children gave the trade mission delegates elaborate cutouts they made in art class. The delegates presented books and computer equipment to the school.

The Georgians also gave each child a bag of trinkets that included lapel pins bearing a Georgia peach and the Chinese flag, a bookmark and a small toy.