Year-ender: 10 awe-inspiring stories in China

Editor's note: 2023 is coming to an end. The year 2023 has witnessed tears and laughter. Let's review some touching moments that impressed us this year.

From the first day to the 10th day during the Spring Festival holiday, every sanitation worker who entered the Niubazi Noodles Restaurant in Wusheng West Street, Qiaokou district, was served with a bowl of noodles for free, Xinhua reported. It was shop owner Yi Wenjing's way to pay tribute to sanitation workers.

Cai Jinyu, 60, from Yangxin, Hubei province, has been working as a sanitation worker in Wuhan for three years. "During the Spring Festival holiday, many breakfast shops along the roadside are closed while Niubazi Noodles Restaurant, instead of raising prices, provides free meals to sanitation workers," said Cai.

"After having this bowl of noodles, I feel warm in my heart," Cai added.

Yi has followed this tradition since 2020, providing free meals to medical personnel, volunteers and sanitation workers who stay put during the Spring Festival holiday.

    

A video clip showing a gray-haired doctor operating a computer carefully and checking the data meticulously moved many netizens, People's Daily reported.

Zhang Fusheng, an 87-year-old practitioner from Lishui, Zhejiang province, has devoted his whole life to patients. Though he retired in 1996, he chose to remain at his post. "If I can do something for the patients, I'll always do it," said Zhang.

In his more than 70-year career, Zhang has adhered to rational drug use and avoided unnecessary examinations. "Providing highly efficient and cost-effective medications for patients is my guiding principle," said Zhang.

Six years ago, Zhang signed up to donate all his organs to the Red Cross Society of China after his death. "I love my job. I believe that everyone should love what they do," Zhang added.

On March 10, firefighters in Hulunbuir, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, successfully rescued eight people trapped in a blizzard.

"We received a call for help at 12:46 pm, saying there were drivers stranded on the No 332 national highway in Hailaar district," said Qi Yuehua, who's in charge of a patrol spot of Xin Barag Left Banner Fire and Rescue Brigade.

At 2:18 pm, the rescue team arrived at the scene, finding that the snow accumulation was nearly one meter, and the stranded vehicle's tires were covered in snow. The firefighters immediately started rescue work, first digging through the snow car with a shovel, and then pushing the vehicle away with sheer manpower. After more than an hour of rescue work, all eight people trapped in three cars were rescued.

"Our firefighters are all young men who have been trained and are well-practiced. As the temperature at the patrol spot in winter is around minus 30-40 degrees Celsius, they often turn into 'frozen men', even when fighting grass fires. They are used to that and don't worry too much about their physical condition when working," Qi said.

  

Li Jiawei, an electrician from Southwest China's Chongqing, spent eight years building a real miniature steam train for his autistic son.

The son, named Hanghang, was diagnosed with autism at 3. After completing primary school, he was forced to drop out because he couldn't catch up in classes and also had difficulty communicating with other children of his age. However, he developed a fascination for miniature trains in animated programs.

The boy's passion for trains inspired Li to build a miniature train. Li spent three months teaching himself how to draw blueprints using software, and standardize and size the required parts for a locomotive.

Due to the complex process and the low demand, factories were unwilling to produce parts for a scaled-down version of the locomotive. Therefore, he learned mechanical transmission and kinetic principles, and as he persisted in building the locomotive, the difficulties only increased, and the end seemed nowhere in sight.

Over eight years, Li tested the machine more than a thousand times. He replaced six boilers, and finally built the first miniature locomotive for his son in 2021.

Yang Zhiyang from Northwest China's Shaanxi province works full-time to take care of his mother, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for over 12 years.

His mother, Su Jing, came down with the disease in 2010. Yang, then 10, has since taken on the role of caregiver as the disease gradually took away Su's ability to care for herself.

As his father worked to earn money for the family, Yang would take care of Su after school every day. Now 22, Yang helps his mother with daily tasks such as bathing, feeding and physical exercises to help her maintain her mobility.

"My mother and I basically rely on eye contact. She gives a signal through a look, and I know what to do," Yang was quoted as saying.

Hu Yunjia, 6, nicknamed Niuniu, has become an enthusiastic business helper in a "silent" foot spa where the owner and all of the employees are hearing-impaired, serving as a sign language translator for customers.

"Madam, how is your day and what help do you need?" "Sir, my dad asked you to take this ointment back home and apply it." Niuniu, the daughter of the shop owner, delivers her father's message, who is also the shop owner, to the customers in her sweet child voice and with rich body language, frequently amusing the guests.

Niuniu started learning sign language from her parents at the age of two and began assisting at the shop at the age of four after kindergarten hours and on holidays.

"Dad taught me to be diligent," Niuniu said. In her view, her parents are like superheroes who look after the family and her despite their inability to hear and speak.

        

Zhang Jianna, 49, is a migrant worker from a rural village in North China's Hebei province. In 2012, she took on the role of a sanitation worker in the embassy area of Sanlitun in Beijing's Chaoyang district.

A special encounter while working motivated Zhang to learn English by herself.

One morning, a foreigner approached her, gently tapped her shoulder, and spoke a long string of unfamiliar words to her. Standing there, her mind going bewildered and blank, Zhang didn't know how to react.

The foreigner seemed to recognize her awkwardness and gestured for her to look ahead, giving a thumbs-up while repeatedly saying, "Good, good!" Zhang suddenly realized that the foreigner was appreciating her work in keeping the streets clean.

"Persistence is key to learning English. Learn step by step, learn every day," Zhang said. To date, she has accumulated a vocabulary of around 3,000 English words, enabling her to converse fluently with foreigners.

      

After the first snowfall in Harbin, a touching scene was captured on the campus of the Harbin Institute of Technology: Jiang Chengguo, 74, walking through the snow-covered campus with a backpack on his shoulders, People's Daily reported.

Jiang donated 1.5 million yuan ($210,521) to the institute's education development foundation to reward outstanding students who contribute to aerospace and national defense endeavors.

This generous donation honors the final wish of his late wife, Luo Guorui, a retired educator from HIT's School of International Studies. Her aspiration was to support more students dedicated to furthering national aerospace and defense endeavors.

"Helping them is also making contributions to the school and the country," Jiang added.

  

Yu was always seen patrolling with tiny dolls hanging from his uniform, offering them to crying children and guiding patients' families.

"I see doctors and nurses busy every day, and parents are worried about their sick children," said Yu Jingjing, the security guard. "I am happy to do something within my abilities to help ease the anxiety of parents and children during their hospital visits."

Yu has become a sensation at the children's hospital. In addition to the two or three dozen dolls attached to his uniform, he also wears a small red sign that reads, "Please call me if you need help".

  

Six-year-old Zhou Botao and his kindergarten friends in Mengman township of Mengla county of Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province found a wallet while playing outside.

Zhou immediately ran to tell his grandmother and then hurried back with his mother to the place where the wallet had been found. They couldn't find any identifying markings on the wallet and nobody around claimed to be the owner.

That's when Zhou told his mother that he wanted to hand over the wallet to the police. So his mother and elder sister accompanied him to the Mengman border police station. The officers confirmed there was more than 2,000 yuan ($280) in the wallet and praised Zhou for his honesty.

Eventually, the police were able to contact the owner and return the wallet.