For Hu Hongwei, an army veteran, undertaking risky tasks is a part of his work. Since retiring from the army and joining the State Grid Hubei Electric Power Co. in 2000, his work is to repair faulty ultra-high voltage power transmission lines, a dangerous job.

In 2009, he was selected to do maintenance work on live 800-kilovolt transmission lines, an even more challenging assignment. He needed to undergo intensive training for half a year, during which he had to carry out simulated operations in the day and analyze his performance at night to ensure that every step was done correctly.

Finally on June 10, 2009, Hu became the first person in the world to work on an ultra-high voltage transmission line with power still on after he climbed onto a high-voltage tower at an experimental base in Beijing.

This year, he had another challenging task during the peak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In February, he and his colleagues were told a high voltage line had developed a problem that could lead to a massive power failure in Wuhan, capital of Hubei in central China that bore the brunt of the epidemic.

Hu, a Wuhan native, rushed to the site with his colleagues. However their vehicle had to stop 4 km away as the road was blocked by mounds. They had to get out of the vehicle, carry equipment weighing more than 65 kg on their backs to the site and climb up the nearly 40-meter high transmission tower to fix the problem. When the task was completed, his clothes were wet with sweat and he was cold and hungry.

This was just one small episode during the epidemic. They worked day and night to ensure power supply to two specialty field hospitals, Leishenshan and Huoshenshan, built in less than a fortnight in Wuhan to treat COVID-19 patients.

Hu was among the people recognized as model workers and exemplary individuals at a gathering in Beijing last month.

They received congratulations from President Xi Jinping, who said model workers are the elites of the nation, role models for the people and heroes of the People's Republic of China. The working class has been the main force to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and winning the battle against poverty, he said, adding that workers should be closely relied on to promote high-quality development.

Xi also urged for training to create a high-caliber workforce. Industrial workers should be trained to have firm ideals, good skills, innovation ability, and a sense of responsibility and dedication; and improve their skills to adapt to the latest sci-tech innovations and industrial transformation, he said. He also called for efforts to protect workers' legitimate rights and interests.

Valuable contribution

Zhou Jiarong, a technician, received the model worker title for his contribution to building the country. An employee of Guizhou Steel Rope (Group) Co., he has been making steel ropes for over 30 years—steel wires of different diameters that can bear the weight of heavy objects.

The ropes he has made have been used in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the longest sea-spanning bridge in the world, and also in the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope in Guizhou in southwest China, the largest radio telescope in the world. Besides, the ropes are sold to more than 40 countries and regions.

Zhou has also participated in the research and development of steel ropes used in China's scientific research missions in the Antarctic and the Shenzhou spacecraft including the Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft launched in 2016.

He and his colleagues have produced steel ropes used for many other important projects, including the Balinghe Bridge, a suspension bridge in Anshun, a city in Guizhou. In 2017, the bridge won the Luban Prize for Construction Projects, the highest award for construction quality in China.

"We felt very excited and proud when we walked on the bridge, seeing the steel ropes made by us suspending it," Zhou said. Speaking of experiences to share with others, he said his work has taught him that only through constant learning can practical skills be improved to make one knowledgeable, skilled and innovative.

His aspiration is to research steel ropes to produce better ones. In this way, he will further contribute to China's mega engineering projects.

Passing down the tradition

Liu Li was honored as a model worker for her dedication to innovation. Liu works in a field where there are few women. She is a driller in the Daqing Oilfield, the country's largest oil production base, located in Heilongjiang Province, northeast China.

Liu said she followed in the footsteps of her father, who was a first-generation oil driller at the oilfield discovered in 1959 and was recognized as a model worker by the province.

After she graduated from vocational school, Liu became a driller at the No.2 Oil Drilling Factory of the oilfield. Four years later, in 1997, she won the third place in a national technical competition.

She has taken part in different kinds of training and completed college by studying in her spare time. Later, she was asked to train other workers in the factory.

Liu has compiled over 20 training manuals for oil drilling teams. One of them, Oil Driller, was published by the Petroleum Industry Press in 2018, becoming an authoritative textbook for drillers.

Liu said she is inspired by her father who remained enthusiastic about his work all his life.

"When I started out, my father was already in his 70s but he still taught me how to use the pumping unit, step by step," she said.

Generations of model workers have inspired others with their dedication. The first batch of model workers and exemplary individuals was honored in 1950. Since the 1990s, the national recognition ceremony has been usually held once every five years. At the ceremony held this year, 1,689 people were honored as national role models and 804 as exemplary individuals.

Among those recognized at the ceremony were hundreds of people who have made outstanding contribution to the fight against COVID-19. They included Shi Qinglian, Director of Dongguan Nursing Society and Vice President of Chashan Hospital in Dongguan, a city in Guangdong Province in south China. At the beginning of this year, when COVID-19 hit Wuhan, she led a 14-member medical team to the city to fight against the epidemic, where she did an excellent job and was honored as an exemplary worker.

(Print Edition Title: Every-Day Heroes)  

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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