Wang Hui spent ten years turning a barren mountain into a "Mountain of Flowers and Fruit"
Editor's Note: For many years, demobilized military cadres, as an important part of Dalian's cadre ranks, have always fought on all fronts across the city and achieved outstanding work results. Recently, three demobilized military cadres in our city, Wang Hui, Li Chengxiang and Lei Hongshan, were awarded the honorary title of "National Model Demobilized Military Cadre" by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. In order to carry forward the valuable qualities of demobilized military cadres - loyalty to the Party, loyalty to their cause, courage to strive and selfless dedication - and to further inspire and drive the broad ranks of Party members and cadres to excel in their own posts, forge ahead, and fully advance the smooth accomplishment of our city's tasks of ensuring growth, ensuring stability and ensuring people's livelihood, starting today this newspaper will successively publish the advanced deeds of Wang Hui, Li Chengxiang and Lei Hongshan.
Ten years - how many ten-year spans does a person have in a lifetime, and how much can happen in ten years?
For demobilized military cadre Wang Hui, the ten years just past are hard to put into words. In those ten years, he went from the military to civilian life, and experienced the ups and downs of unemployment, employment, unemployment again and then starting his own business; in those ten years, with his diligent hands and his intelligence and talent, he moved more than 100,000 cubic meters of earth and stone, filled in gullies and leveled hills, turning a barren mountain into a "Mountain of Flowers and Fruit" planted with chestnut trees, apple trees, peach trees and other fruit trees; in those ten years, he went through the marital upheaval of his wife and daughter leaving, and also gained new love and a new family...
In those ten years, Wang Hui never once reached out to the Party and the government, and he did not even apply for the living allowance that demobilized military cadres who lost their jobs at enterprises are entitled to. Over the ten years, he devoted the best years of his life to his aspirations and his cause. In him shines the tenacity and hard-working character unique to demobilized military cadres. His deeds also moved society and moved and educated a large number of demobilized military cadres who lost their jobs at enterprises.
Recently, Wang Hui was awarded the glorious title of "National Model Demobilized Military Cadre" and was warmly received by Hu Jintao and other Party and state leaders. The Shahekou District Party Committee and District Government where he is located awarded him the title of "Pacesetter in Demobilized Military Cadres' Independent Entrepreneurship" and called on demobilized military cadres throughout the district to carry out activities to learn from Comrade Wang Hui.
After two bouts of unemployment, he chose to start a business on a barren mountain
Standing on the mountain in Xitucheng Village, Dagushan Township, Donggang City, which Wang Hui contracted, one sees greenery everywhere; 300 mu of terraced fields are planted with various fruit trees and seasonal vegetables, and dozens of rooms for housing, warehouses and pigsties are built on the mountain. Here Wang Hui dug his own well and installed running water, and there is not only a telephone and cable television, but also a computer with internet access. Yet Wang Hui told reporters that ten years ago this place was an out-and-out barren mountain.
Wang Hui, now 45 years old, joined the military at 20. In 1996 he was demobilized from a company-level post to work at an enterprise in our city, and soon lost his job due to enterprise restructuring. Later he found a job at an imported automobile dealership company in the development zone. Thanks to his good personal qualities and diligent work, he quickly mastered marketing skills, won deep appreciation from the company, and his salary and benefits were raised again and again. However, in the summer of 1998, affected by the Southeast Asian financial crisis, the enterprise where Wang Hui worked could not keep going, and he lost his job once again.
Facing unemployment twice, Wang Hui did not complain about fate's unfairness, nor did he blame others and give himself up as hopeless. This tough man who had come out of the military barracks conceived the idea of starting his own business. By chance, Wang Hui got to know a leader from Dagushan Township, Donggang City, who was doing investment promotion in the Dalian Development Zone. He was attracted by the project to develop 140 mu of abandoned mountain gully wasteland in Xitucheng Village, Dagushan Township. After several rounds of investigation and feasibility assessment, he set his new life goal on contracting barren mountains, improving the ecological environment and benefiting future generations.
He acted as soon as he decided. In the late autumn of 1998, Wang Hui bade farewell to his wife and daughter and to the city where he had lived for decades, and came to Xitucheng Village, Dagushan Township with two relatives from the countryside and several migrant workers, beginning his entrepreneurial career.
When he first went up the mountain, desolation met his eyes everywhere: stones strewn all over the mountain, gullies crisscrossing, and in grass deeper than a person, a few abandoned apple trees could occasionally be seen, with a few ping-pong-ball-sized fruits swaying in the wind on their branches. In two smoke-blackened shacks, the stove and the earthen kang had already collapsed; a few sparrows came and went freely through the broken window, rats scurried across the ground, and outside the shack he even found a gray snake swallowing a rat... In such a harsh environment with no road, no water, no electricity and only insects for company, Wang Hui and his companions, like the Foolish Old Man who moved the mountains, began day after day of quarrying stone, building houses, building terraced fields and planting fruit trees. Blood blisters formed layer upon layer on their hands, and hard calluses wore onto their shoulders. In summer and autumn there were many mosquitoes and insects on the mountain, and the bites ulcerated in many places on their bodies, leaving scars to this day. The hardest time was winter: unwilling to spend money on coal, they relied on gathering firewood and grass to burn in the kang for warmth, and at night they had to wear cotton hats to sleep, often waking up frozen in the middle of the night, and after waking they would add a handful of firewood to the kang opening and sleep again. Because of the harsh environment, the hard living conditions and the intense labor, the two relatives from the countryside left him one after another, and local migrant workers were no longer willing to endure hardship there either. Some locals predicted that within 3 years he would surely roll up his bedding and leave. But with a soldier's spirit and a real man's mettle, Wang Hui gritted his teeth and got through the crucial first 3 years, persisting for a full 10 years.