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Two generations on, how we've changed!
Fate, luck accompany pilot on difficult rescue missions
Chen Renyu, a former air force pilot, became a civilian aviation pilot in 1985.
He
said he always analyzes aircraft accidents when they happen to think
about how he would have handled the situations as a pilot. Accidents
rarely happen, but when they do, the consequences can be dire.
“Some
100 passengers are trusting you with their safety,” he said. “Their
lives are in your hands. We must live up to that trust.”
Chen recalled one close call.
“It
was about dawn and we were about to take off when I noticed a problem
with the engine,” he said. “The whole set of routine maintenance checks
had been performed and no one noticed anything wrong, but I could hear a
noise in the running engine.”
Another round of tests was run, and it turned out there was a problem in the hydraulic system.
Chen
started out as a worker in factory in 1968. He thought it would be
challenging to join the army, but he had to balance that ambition
against family obligations.
“Only my father lives in Shanghai,” he
said. “My mother and siblings stayed in Taizhou (a city in
Jiangsu Province). As the eldest son, the burden of helping support the
family naturally fell on my shoulders.”
Ti Gong
The gold award given to recognize Chen’s safety missions
Nevertheless, he joined the army in Nanjing. After serving one year,
fate presented him with the opportunity to apply for the air force.
“More
than 3,000 people applied for a few positions,” said Chen. “The
selection was quite rigorous, and I didn’t really have much hope of
success.”
But as Chen passed through the series of tests, he found fewer other applicants alongside him. In the end,
he was accepted for the air force.
Chen said he believes in fate, and his luck held during what were sometimes dangerous missions.
Chen
clearly remembers 3:42am, July 28, 1976, when the Tangshan earthquake
struck the region. Five minutes after his team received rescue mission
notice, it set off with supplies. To make more room for more supplies,
seats in the planes were removed.
Chen was the first to arrive at
Tangshan. The planes had to land without the benefit of radar or a
navigation station. Meanwhile, aftershock kept destroying structures on
the ground.
“We couldn’t predict the time of the next tremor,
which increased the risk of landings. If a tire got stuck in cracks in
the runaway, the plane would be useless,” he said. http://www.vssewingmachine.com/sewing-machine-showroom-perambur/
Ti Gong
Chen (second from left) piloted flights for Marshal Ye Jianying (fourth from the left)
The rescue mission lasted for a week. Chen helped fly the wounded to
hospitals in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province and Zhengzhou, Henan Province,
working 16 hours a day with only bread for food.
“Disasters can’t
stop the nation’s faith to save lives,” he said. “When the country needs
you, you serve,” he said. “My job means responsibility to the nation.”
Chen said he credits his wife for his success.
His wife, Zhuang
Weiping, often didn’t know where her husband was but she knew not to
fret. Once he became a civil aviation pilot, he began to have more time
to spend with his family. His son looks set to follow his footsteps in
the aviation industry.
Teacher survives hard times with DIY skills
I come from a family that has practiced traditional Chinese medicine
from generation to generation,” Zhang Liren said. “I’m the only one who
became a teacher.”
Zhang, his wife and their granddaughters enjoy a happy moment together in a local park.
Zhang didn’t intend to be a rebel in the family, but his one-time
dream of becoming a doctor was dashed by the “cultural revolution”
(1966- 76), which broke out when he was in the 11th grade. He was forced
to drop out of high school and was sent to a rural area to farm.
“Life
was tough and got even more difficult during three years of natural
disasters,” he said. “We saved the best crops to sell and were left to
eat the worst parts, such as cabbage roots and red potato leaves.”
Zhang
was one of the few in the farming village who had some education. When
classes began resuming several years later, the village hired him as a
teacher.
“There were six teachers teaching all subjects to five
classes,” he said. “Students had to bring their own chairs because we
didn’t have any.”
Zhang taught Chinese, English and art. To increase his
meager
income, he got up at 4am to do farming for three hours before school
started, and returned to the fields for three hours after school closed.
Poverty
also forced him to teach himself skills like building houses and making
clothes and furniture. Zhang spent two years making 1,500 bricks to
build a new house.
Poverty forced Zhang Liren to teach himself
skills like building houses and making clothes and furniture. He even
made his own wedding suit.
“Even the formal suit I wore for my wedding was made by myself,” he said.
China’s
policies of economic reform and opening up to the outside world, which
began in the late 1970s, lifted Zhang’s economic status. He was able to
buy a radio, bicycle, sewing machine, watch and black-and-white TV.
Zhang (second from left) and his neighbors form a musical ensemble for a festival in Meilong where they live.
In the early 2000s, Zhang represented his village in asking the government for reconstruction funds.
“Now I live a cozy life,” he said “My retirement pension is more than adequate.”
He
maintains a busy lifestyle in retirement, holding classes for book club
members every week and taking flute lessons. Zhang said he actually
feels like he’s getting younger.
Medic shows loyalty to family and country
Shen Xiaoyu, whose motto is loyalty to country and
family, joined the army in 1969. He served on a medical team for 18 years.
His
parents were poor but still held grand hopes for him and his siblings.
Shen maintained studying even after having to drop out of school to do
farm work. What he really wanted to do was become a doctor.
In
those days, access to medical training was sparse. Shen trained for only
three months before he was assigned to follow doctors on their rounds.
Day by day, he gathered experience.
Shen at his office in the Zhuanqiao Health Center
In 1969, the news that he was accepted by the army changed his life.
Shen became a medic and was selected as a model soldier for three years
in a row.
Medical equipment was a rarity.
“When my wife was
pregnant, the doctor at the Beiqiao Health Center couldn’t verify that
she was carrying twins because he didn’t have the appropriate
equipment,” said Shen. “There were only a basic stethoscope, a blood
pressure cuff and a thermometer.”
When Shen was discharged from the army, he went to work in a local hospital in 1986.
Healthcare conditions began to change dramatically. A two-story health center was built and it managed to get an X-ray machine.
Major reforms in the nation’s medical system began in 1998 and were completed in 2016.
“When
I returned to Minhang in the 1980s, staff from units above county level
and veterans enjoyed full reimbursement for medical expenses, which
also covered half of their children’s medical bills,” he said.
Now the medical reimbursement system has been replaced by the medical insurance.
Shen
said good medical care is one of the greatest benefits the government
has bestowed on people. By the end 2018, 1.3 billion residents were
covered by medical insurance.
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