Wu Fan's final wish was that her death would mean saving the life of someone else.
The 13-year-old, who passed away on Monday morning after battling leukemia for almost three years, had offered to donate her organs.
However, doctors at the No 1 Hospital affiliated to China PLA General Hospital in Beijing said because of her lengthy treatment, only her cornea could be transplanted.
"She was my only child," her father Wu Xianyu was quoted as saying by Beijing Evening News. "Although I don't know who the cornea will go to, I feel she is still with us."
The teenager was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 11 and, according to nurses at the hospital, had battled the illness bravely and kept a positive attitude.
Wu's family, which comes from Chifeng in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, spent all of their savings on her treatment and at one time owed the hospital more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000) in medical bills. The family was able to pay the bill with the help of a donor who gave them more than 76,000 yuan to cover the medical costs.