Wuhan hosts fascinating storytellers

BEIJING,May 30,2023 -- A news report from China Daily:

A special presentation on "The Practice of the Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era in Hubei" was held in Wuhan,Hubei province on Tuesday,with six guests sharing their fascinating stories.

A bird's-eyeviewofHanjiang River in Wuhan,the capital of Hubei province. Mei Tao / For China Daily

Zhou Zongkun,a member of a satellite navigation and positioning technology research center at Wuhan University,revealed the behind-the-scenes application of China's successful Beidou satellite navigation system. After 30 years of hard work from nearly 300,000 people,Beidou now operates in more than half the world's countries and regions.

Cheng Jue,a post-90s woman from Dashi village in Baini Town,Chongyang county,Hubei province,discussed the development of special agricultural and livestock breeding industries. After graduating from university in 2014 she returned to her hometown and leveraged e-commerce tools to sell local agricultural products.

"In the past,rural households only had spider webs,now every family has access to the internet. All the efforts have been well worthwhile!" Cheng said.

Mao Weiqi,chief engineer of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group,pointed out that as the "city of bridge design" Wuhan is constantly breaking world records in bridge construction. Over the past 70 years Mao's group has designed and constructed more than 4,000 large-scale bridges both domestically and internationally. The Padma Bridge built by the group reduced the time for local residents to cross the river from three hours to just 10 minutes,benefiting more than 80 million people.

Photographer Yang He has been capturing footage of Chinese river dolphins for five years. On a February afternoon in 2022,he saw normal operations on the Yangtze River,regarded as a golden waterway,briefly halted in order to rescue a single Chinese river dolphin that was in danger of drowning.

"In the past it was difficult to capture footage of Chinese river dolphins because of their small population and their fear of humans. Now,we can take pictures of them every day," Yang said.

Zhou Lin is the community manager of the Huajin community in Nanhu Street,Wuhan's Wuchang district,Hubei province. She explained how members of the community have spontaneously formed 33 volunteer service teams,with one in every six residents taking part.

"When it comes to matters like repairing parking lots and conducting events,everyone is willing to help," said Zhou.

Brian Gonzalez,an Argentine,is a cultural and tourism blogger who has spent considerable time in China since 2009. During his stay in Wudang Mountain,he met Jacob Lee Pinnick from the United States and learned that Pinnick is the 16th generation martial arts master of the Wudang Sanfeng sect.

"I never thought that there would be a foreigner who could inherit the Wudang culture!" Gonzalez said.

All the presenters received enthusiastic applause from the audience after telling their stories.