(LI SHIGONG)

When I first arrived here a few months ago, I couldn't help but notice several work projects going on all around me. A new dorm was being built on campus where I would be teaching, as well as a courtyard being repaved and bricked in front of the female students' dormitory, and a building next to my gym was being renovated. I wondered how long it would take to finish these large tasks, especially the courtyard, as school would begin in about a week, and it would be a mess for students to have to walk through mud, over piles of sand, and around stacks of bricks to get where they wanted to go.

I was living on the campus at the time, and so watched the progress daily. It was soon evident that the men worked like Aesop's tortoise of fame, not too fast, but were very diligent and steady with their headway, and for many hours on end throughout the day and night. It was only a matter of days before the scaffolding was coming down in noisy metallic clanks to the ground in front of the new dorm, and glass panels went up. A very attractive curved facade began to take shape front and center, and the trenching for plumbing was dug, and piping was laid. I rode my bike to my quarters late one night to see men still out front with flood lights, mixing sand, stacking bricks, and digging drainage ditches for sluicing the waste water. Not only did they continue to work through the night, but they also had the sensibility and good nature to look up, smile and wave in return as I rode by. I would not be so happy doing that kind of work, at that time of night.

The courtyard was done even faster.Granted, the chore was not as complicated as building a building, but the size of the work area was daunting. Again, piles of sand disappeared and became the foundation for the bricks in record time, and the huge stacks of hundreds of bricks took their place in the gigantic puzzle of the yard. Men strung string as the guide for level work, others spread the sand, shovel full after shovel full, and still others tamped the bricks into place, each man well acquainted with his particular job, and the assembly line of work went on like the ticking of a clock, all hands in sync. It seemed a magical thing once the last brick was in place in so short a time, and the job could not have been neater had it been done by the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt! It was hard work done by tenacious men.

But the fellows who impressed me the most were the sheetrock carriers of the renovation job. Since the front of the building was free of walls or glass, it gave an open view to the workers inside. I sat out front one morning waiting for the gym to open, and noticed movement on several floors of the exposed structure. I had to do a double take for my mind to register what I was seeing. These workers were carrying panels of sheetrock up four flights of stairs solo. I have seen other laborers here carrying heavy items on their backs, from dressers to desks to lockers, balanced by their hands from the bottom of the object, and their balance and agility amaze me. But sheetrock up stairs? This stuff is very heavy and awkward to handle, but these men danced with it. Not one man missed a step, dropped and end, or stopped to rest. To keep from turning on the stairs, one flight would be walked facing front, the next flight would be taken backward, the edge of the sheetrock just missing the landing above. It was like watching a blue-collar ballet.

China has a history of incredible feats of labor, from the Great Wall, Terra Cotta Warriors and Grand Canal, to the Three Gorges Dam and the modernization for the Olympics. It seems the people have a genetic disposition for hard work and diligence combined with the adage that "many hands make lighter work." Not only is it rare for me to see a people so focused and intent on doing the good job that they do, but that they do it without complaint, without hesitation, and a ready smile despite the sweat.

The author is an American living in Beijing