Memorable Yunnan people and their deeds in 2019

Zhu Youyong (L) works with his colleague

A new year has come before we know it. In 2019, Zhu Youyong, Guo Caiting, Yang Zaoming, Jiang Guoyu, Fan Jing and many other people from Yunnan did something extraordinary. They devoted themselves, their lives even, to the development of Yunnan.

They devote their lives to poverty alleviation

Guo Caiting was a government official at Houqiao Town in west Yunnan’s Tengchong City, where he used to work as a teacher and a school principal.

In March 2019, he applied to work in the Danzha neighbourhood, where he had taught for eight years. His aim was to help local people out of poverty. On July 11th, 2019, a heavy storm struck. Guo was driving to check on some poor families, to see if their houses were safe. A mudslide swept him and his car into a steep valley.

By 2020, as the Chinese government has promised, all rural residents living below the current poverty line will be lifted out of poverty. Even those living in the most remote areas will have adequate food and clothing, as well as access to compulsory education, basic medical services and housing. With the whole country engaged in a battle against poverty, some people in Yunnan have even devoted their lives to the cause of poverty alleviation like Guo Caiting. According to statistics from the Yunnan Provincial Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, 73 poverty alleviation officials in the province died in line of duty between 2013 and 2018. In the year 2019 another 18 officials were added to the death toll.

"Farmer academician" wins national honor

Zhu Youyong is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and honorary president of Yunnan Agricultural University. On December 2nd, 2019, the title of "role model of the times" was bestowed on him by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, in recognition of his contributions to science as well as poverty reduction. This well-known Chinese scholar spent the past four years with poor farmers in southwest Yunnan’s Lancang County, helping them to increase their income. He not only trained farmers on growing winter potatoes but also invited other academicians to instruct the farmers in the field. So far, he has trained more than 1,500 farmers. Local people refer to him as a "farmer academician".

Today tens of thousands of government officials, enterprise employees, teachers and volunteers in Yunnan are following in Zhu’s footsteps, and helping poor areas in their own way.

The year 2020 is already here, and more people are on the road to accomplishing their missions.

Young men help Long March-5 Y3 send Shijian-20 satellite into orbit
On December 27th, 2019, China successfully sent Shijian-20 technological experiment satellite into orbit from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre, with its heavy-lift Long March-5 Y3. It was the first time that China got its largest and most powerful launch vehicle to take off again after a failed launch in 2017.

Jiang Guoyu is a 25-year-old man of the Hani ethnic minority from Pu'er, Yunnan. He works at the Technical Department of the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre and his main responsibility is processing the data from the telemetry system. It was only two years ago that he graduated from university, but he has already participated in more than 20 space launches. In preparation for launching the Shijian-20 satellite, Jiang spent almost every minute in the computer room, except when eating or sleeping.

Fan Jing, a young man from Xuanwei, Yunnan, also took part in the satellite launch project. As a meteorological and hydrological engineer with the Technical Department of the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, he acted as leader and spokesperson for the meteorological support team. Two months before the mission, he moved into the launch centre. He managed the team in checking the meteorological material, preparing the meteorological system mission documents and issueing weather forecasts at key points.
When the mission succeeded, Fan was overjoyed and immediately called his family to inform them of the good news. He was proud to be able to locate the meteorological window most suitable for launching the satellite. (Yunnan Daily)