Li Wansheng chokes up as gazing at his work of life dedication lying in the ruins of the factory he helped build nearly 40 years ago.
A retired worker, the 70-year-old Li often thinks of the early days of the Dongfang (Oriental) Steam Turbine Works, now known as Dongfang Turbine Company, in Hanwang town of the worst-hit Mianzhucity, near the epicenter of the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake that has claimed almost 70,000 lives.
"Before we realized what was happening, the Shuguang Mountain crumbled in rocks and dust, and blanketed the factory. " Li says in a heavy accent of China's Northeast, although he has lived in the southwestern province of Sichuan for almost four decades.
"I stayed in my house after it was all over, but I felt lost, not knowing what to do. My whole life has been dedicated to and connected with Dongfang."
But Li considers he is lucky as his entire family, notably his favorite 12-year-old grandson, survived the tragedy, compared to some 600 of his Dongfang fellows and their families who perished within seconds when the factory's workshops and dormitories collapsed.
Like 1,100 other factories in the country, Dongfang was born in 1966 in the industrial flurry to promote the "Third-line Construction" during the Cold War era started after the United States waged the Vietnam War.
The "Third-line Construction" was regarded as a major decision on Chinese industrial system and national defense construction. For this very regard, a huge number of technicians and skillful workers were transferred from big cities like Shanghai, Harbin and Shenyang to the southwest China.
As to prepare for war and guarantee logistics support in the interior areas (or third-line) in the event of war, the Chinese leadership decided to build new factories in the southwestern regions, mainly Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.
In the summer of 1969, Li Wansheng, a skilled worker from Harbin Steam Turbine Works, was dispatched to Hanwang for the construction of a new factory -- Dongfang Steam Turbine Works.
"We followed Chairman Mao's guidance of 'Let talent and horses support the third-line construction'," Li recalls.
Though excited about his new job, Li was not sure about his future. "I was born and brought up in northeast Liaoning, and I thought I might encounter difficulties in the heat of Sichuan."
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All his family members were opposed to his decision to go Sichuan. Before his departure for the station, his father stopped speaking to him in anger. "But as a member of Communist Party of China, it was my responsibility to follow the decision the Party made," Li says.
In September that year, more than a hundred workers and technicians from Harbin Steam Turbine and Shanghai Steam Turbine were transferred to Hanwang. Also on the train to Sichuan were Li's wife and their first son.
To Li's disappointment, Hanwang was bleak and isolated, in sharp contrast to prosperous Harbin. There was only one narrow street in the shabby town, and they lived in thatched houses without electricity for several years. Yet, the biggest trouble for Li was a local seasoning Huajiao, the Sichuan pepper. "It tastes terrible," Li says.
He worked in the cold-work workshop, but he helped build the factory, dormitories and even railway lines with his young colleagues, as "there was essentially nothing in Dongfang".
In 1974, Dongfang was put into operation, and the first product was a 50,000-kilowatt thermo-power turbine. "We were so excited to see the birth of this baby, as we had started from scratch."
In the 1970s, Dongfang manufactured marine turbines for three naval ships, still the only military products it has ever made. The defense-oriented factory moved into civil engineering later on.
From the late 1970s through 1980s, Dongfang developed rapidly with China's reform and opening, and Hanwang began to prosper with an increased population of 60,000. In 1986, Dongfang set up a branch in adjacent Deyang City to expand business.
Gradually, Li felt at home with the factory and the life. "In Hanwang, there was a saying that it was enviable to be a worker ofDongfang."
In the following years, Li sent his two sons to Dongfang, who later married workers from the factory.
By 1994 when Li retired from his post at the infrastructure division of Dongfang, the factory began to embrace another round of development from "independent innovation" to "comprehensive international cooperation".
The partners included big names, such as Alstom, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Siemens, in four main sectors: steam turbines, nuclear steam turbines, gas turbines and wind power turbines.
From 2002 to 2007, the annual sales revenue of Dongfang increased from 1 billion RMB to 10 billion RMB. The annual assembly capacity has climbed to 28 million kilowatts, and the single-machine power has reached 1 million kilowatts. "The baby has really grown up," says Li.
However, the hidden danger was already there: Hanwang town is lying on the Longmenshan Fault, an area that has experienced damaging earthquakes in the past. In 1933, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake around the fault caused more than 9,000 casualties.
But Li and other Hanwang citizens had no knowledge of Longmenshan Fault and its impact.
In 1976, after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake centered on Songpanin Sichuan, Li and his family lived in the temporary shelters for several days. "That time was forgotten. We didn't expect that Hanwang would be in the same place," says Li's wife Kong Xiangrong.
Neither did most Chinese, including the government. According to the Standard for Classification of Seismic Protection of Building Construction issued in 1978, the buildings of Dongfang were supposed to be designed to withstand a 7-degree earthquake, but Hanwang experienced an actual intensity of 10 degrees in the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake, says Zhang Zhiying, general manager of Dongfang.
In the giant quake, the production base of Hanwang suffered severe damage, involving the first, third and fourth main turbine plants and a dozen supporting factories.
Since the earthquake, Dongfang has been considering drastic restructuring. The Hanwang headquarters and production basis will be transferred to Deyang, where the geological structure is more stable, says Zhang.
Fortunately, the Deyang branch has suffered little loss, and the second main turbine plant accounts for 50 percent of all its turbine production. Last week, the fourth sub-factory in Hanwang also resumed production.
"We expect to resume 80 percent of the original production capacity by the end of June, and we're confident we'll surpass this year's capacity by June next year," says Zhang. "Dongfang is rock solid, not susceptible to any setbacks."
The earthquake also impelled Dongfang to upgrade its distribution and transportation layout. Compared with industrial cities like Shanghai and Suzhou, the logistics infrastructure in the area around Dongfang is weaker, says Zhang.
In the past, the parts produced in Hanwang were shipped to Deyang where the second sub-factory of main turbine would assemble them. Dongfang will establish a new factory in Deyang by June 2009, and the efficiency will be enhanced, says Zhang.
The company is determined to rise above from the ruins once more to success. But, for Li and his family, to adapt to a new environment will be a painful process.
Looking through the window of a four-storey building, Li's wifeKong sighs. "We used to take a leisurely walk after dinner in our picturesque factory. I miss the good old days."
Source: Xinhua
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