Olympic Gold Medallist

Winter Olympic gold medallist Yang Yang (A), better known as Da Yang Yang to most Chinese people, said she felt a little bit nervous when she was elected as one of the CPC delegates to attend the 16th CPC National Congress.

"I felt honored, excited but a little nervous because it was the first time for me to attend such a big and important meeting," the 26-year-old short-track skate speeding world champion explained.

Yang Yang (A) won China's first ever Winter Olympic gold medal in the women's 500 meter short-track speed skating final in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games on February 16.

She broke China's zero gold medal record in the games since the Chinese made their Winter Olympics debut in Lake Placid, the United States, in 1980.

A week later, she won yet another gold medal in the women's 1000 meter short-track speed final and confirmed her No 1 status in the world with another 10 more world championship titles in other individual and team events.

Yang was born in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, home of China's winter sports. She started her skating training at eight years old.

She is billed as Yang Yang (A) to avoid confusion with her younger namesake and speed skating teammate Yang Yang (S).

Yang has won various honors for her world-level performances on the ice rinks, such as a Sports Honor Medal, State May 1st Labor Medal and May 4th Chinese Youth Outstanding Contribution Medal. Last week, she was named one of the top 10 distinguished Chinese women by the All-China Women's Federation.

Yang is now studying in the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University in Beijing while continuing her daily training.

Despite a busy schedule, Yang said she has set aside time to prepare for the forthcoming congress.

"I am attending the historic meeting, and it requires the best representation," she said.

Devoted Country Doctor

Wu Dengyun, 62, comes from Ulugqat County, located in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on the border between China, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

In this remote county, Wu has been called "Pamirs' Savior in White" among the local people, 70 percent of them Khalkhas (Kirgizs).

After graduating from Yangzhou Medical School in east China's Jiangsu Province, he left his hometown of Yangzhou and traveled more than 5,000 kilometers to the Pamirs Mountains, where Ulugqat County is located.

Few doctors wanted to work in such a remote and desolate place at that time, but the young and vigorous Wu decided to stay and devote himself to improve local medical care.

As the director of the County People's Hospital, he spends three months each year making trips on horseback to the tents of the families of herds people scattered in the mountains. In this way, he has been able to provide medical care to those people who cannot go to the hospital easily owing to a lack of transportation.

Wu has also donated blood more than 30 times - altogether more than 7,000 milliliters of blood in the past years. This has helped save about 40 of his patients, even though he fainted at the operating table a few times afterwards.

He once cut off 13 pieces of skin from his legs to save a little Khalkhas boy's life, who had suffered serious burns.

The little boy, named Tuohe Taxi, is now 30 and the father of a son and a daughter.

"Doctor Wu is my savior," he said.

Local Khalkhas have composed two songs for Wu, named "Savior in White" and "Pure Springs" respectively.

Wu retired from the post of hospital director two years ago but he has not left Ulugqat.

"I will not put my mind at rest even if I leave Ulugqat, where I still have plenty work to do," said Wu in an earlier interview by CCTV.

"As a doctor and a common CPC member, I wish I can do more to make the lives better for more people," he said.

Village Business Manager

This is the third time that Zhang Houhua, 55, has been elected as a delegate to the CPC National Congress.

Zhang, the founder and president of Huanghe (Yellow River) Group in Fugu County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, started village business ventures in 1994. Today, his company, consisting of 11 factories and several sales companies, is one of the largest village and township enterprises in the county.

"I am honored to represent farmers when attending the meetings," said Zhang, who was born in a peasant family in Shipan Village in Fugu County in 1947.

He can never forget the hard days when most villagers worried about how to fill their stomach.

Zhang started a small travel business with 130,000 yuan (US$15,720) in Shipan in the early 1990s.

Zhang won national fame when he became the first peasant sponsor to build a 1,350-meter-long highway bridge on the Wenli River, a branch of the Yellow River in 1997. It cost a total of 22 million yuan (US$2.66 million).

"We farmers are freeing ourselves of poverty with our own intelligence and hands and we will do better in the future," Zhang said with confidence.

Fighter in the Desert

In the vast desert of the Erjin Banner (Dalain Hob), Chifeng, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, colorful Chinese tamarisk blossoms surround an oasis of about 1,300 hectares.

The oasis has been created by Yongqing Jabo, who came to the desert with her 4-year-old son in 1987.

"The whole area was barren when we first came. Every time we planted Chinese tamarisk to fence the grassland, the sandstorms would blow the samplings dozens of kilometers away, and I have to go and get them back," Yongqing Jabo recalled.

The woman rose from bed at 4 every morning, planted Chinese tamarisk and grasses, took care of the sheep, and would not sleep until one o'clock at night.

After 15 years of hard work, 1,300 hectares of grasses, 35,000 trees and 1,000 sheep are thriving in the desert.

Yongqing Jabo has also been helping local residents free themselves from poverty.

Li Jianzhong, a local resident, said: "My family would not be so happy if she wasn't here to help."

Yongqing Jabo helped Li pay the tuition fees of his three daughters.

"I am a Party member rooted in the grassland. I will do my best to help my fellow herdsmen lead a better life," she said.

Commander of Pigs

When Chen Jianxiong graduated from Foshan College of Science and Technology with an animal husbandry major in 1989, all he wanted to do was to find a job in Zhongshan City, south China's Guangdong Province.

The reason was that he hoped to join his girlfriend there.

He got a job with the local food import and export company. However, he was assigned to work at the Baishi pig farm, 30 kilometers away from central Zhongshan.

During the day, he cleaned the pigsties, transported fodder and fed the pigs. At night, he fought with mosquitoes in a dormitory which was almost a makeshift shed.

He wanted to leave the job, but his mother and girlfriend - now his wife - encouraged him to stay. They said that he should change the working environment there instead of running away.

Fresh from college, he had a lot of new ideas to change the management of the pig farm. He was able to win the trust of his colleagues and the managers after he led a chorus group from the farm to win first place in a local singing competition.

He also gained confidence after he successfully cured the farm's hounds who were suffering an epidemic disease.

Four years later, he became the farm's general manager. Over the past 11 years, Chen, 36, and his colleagues have transformed the farm into one of the best and most modern pig farms in the country. With 100 employees holding a college education, the farm supplies the market with some 4,000 pigs of breeding stock and 50,000 hogs a year.

During the forthcoming 16th CPC National Congress, Chen, as a delegate, will put forward his ideas on improving the country's legal and moral education of the young, and on advancing agriculture in China and foreign trade.

"We should also pay more attention to vulnerable groups in the society as well," he said.

Choreographer

Ma Dongfeng, a choreographer from the Sichuan Provincial Song and Dance Theatre, is the only representative from arts circles in southwest China's Sichuan Province to attend the 16th CPC National Congress. Ma, who dresses in graceful black and white, regards her coming participation in the Party congress as a superb honor.

"As a choreographer, it's necessary to produce more artistic programs," she said.

Although her name is not well known, her dance and musical works, such as "Flowers on Far Mountains" and "Combination for the Future," are popular, winning a number of national awards for creative stage works.

"Successful work is often the result of endless innovation and exploration," Ma noted.

Ma said she will take another bold step in her creation. She will adapt Tibetan author Ah Lai's novel "Dusts Settled Down" into a large-scale dance drama.

The book won the 2000 Mao Dun Literature Award for the author's vivid portrayals of the lives of Tibetans.

"Artists need to devote themselves to life with a new attitude, that is, to be patient and create more excellent works that reflect our era."

A Sewage Cleaner

Gu Haiwei is a sewage cleaner, working with the No 2 Sanitation Branch in Hebei District, Tianjin.

He is the third generation worker with the city sanitation department in his family, having developed a special feeling for the job from his grandfather and his father.

"My work is to clean the city and make the city more beautiful and it is an important career," he said.

For 21 years, he has cleaned the public restrooms in the district. During his spare time, he volunteers to work in a local home for the elderly.

When he started his job, he and his colleagues still worked with their hands. Over the past few years, they have worked together and developed electric machines that have aided their manual work tremendously.

As they can now work more efficiently, Gu and his colleagues have also established a service center to help clean up sewage in individual homes.

(China Daily)

Jiang Zemin, in his report to the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, said the Party's door is open to all positive factors of the society, including private entrepreneurs, foreign-invested firm employees, self-employed businessmen and freelance professionals, he also said that the Party should advance with the times. What's your opinion?