I n t h e m o r n i n g o f November 30th, 2019, police dog Erteng was buried in an orchard near Daheishan Sub-station of the Mengkang Entry-Exit Inspection Station in Ximeng Wa Autonomous County, Puer City, Yunnan Province. The tombstone faces the Daheishan Sub-s t a t i o n , w h i c h E r t e n g guarded in its lifetime.

In its 10-year career as a police dog, Erteng delivered exemplary service. He was on duty at Daheishan for a total of 2,982 days. Over the years he inspected 200,000 vehicles and 240,000 pieces o f l u g g a g e , d i s c o v e r e d 1 0 0 k i l o g r a m s o f d r u g s and helped with the arrest of 13 suspects. Before the demobilisation of his trainer Z h o u B i n g , E r t e n g w a s anxious and restless. When Zhou Bing looked back to bid him farewell , Erteng jumped onto the truck. He took Zhou Bing's backpack between his teeth and would

n o t l e t g o . " D u r i n g m y absence, you must guard the national gate and get along with your new trainer," Zhou Bing said, with tears in his eyes.

H e a r i n g Z h o u B i n g ' s w o r d s , E r t e n g s t o p p e d tearing at the backpack but still kept whining. When the truck drove out of the camp, Erteng began to run after it. By the time the truck was out of sight, Erteng was already out of breath, though he had never f l inched f rom any training or mission. Later, severa l more ba tches o f soldiers were demobilized, but Erteng still guarded the Sub-station.

I n 2 0 1 8 , E r t e n g w a s already 10 years old. Like a man in his sixties, his visual, a u d i t o r y a n d o l f a c t o r y functions deteriorated, and he had to retire. Just after the 2019 Spring Festival holiday, Erteng disappeared. His trainer Yang Fuxing and other police officers searched

everywhere. Finally, they found Erteng, under a tree on the hill behind the camp and on the brink of death.

On November 29th, 2019, Er teng brea thed h is las t breath and was buried near the national gate which he had guarded. "You are our family and closest comrade-in-arms. You fought side by side with us, but you left us early," said the police off icers , who wi l l never forget Erteng.

(Xinhua)

FRIDAY JANUARY 3, 2020

zuyndaily@163.com

NO. 237

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FOCUS

The Belt and Road Init iative represents a joint undertaking by China and its Asian neighbors. China gives top priority to neighboring countries in its foreign policy and pursues amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness in building relations with them. China is ready

to provide more public goods to its Asian neighbors through connectivity, and welcomes them to board China's train of development.

——Excerpt from President Xi Jinping's speech at the Dialogue on Strengthening Connectivity Partnership

CHINA STORIES

Zhang Guimei(in black coat) sings together with her students. (Yunnan Daily)

BELT AND ROAD

Doctor of cultural relics: Enabling national treasures to travel through time

A cultural relics restorer is cleaning a relic. (Xinhua)

Yu Chaoqing makes examination for a patient. By Li Hengqiang

"Miracle principal" helps 1,600 disadvantaged girls go to college

At 5:30 A.M. every morning, Zhang Guimei stands on the third floor of the school. With a loudspeaker in her hand, she shouts, "Hurry up, girls! The morning reading is about to start!" Fifteen minutes later, the girls are reading aloud in the classroom.

This has been happening every day, since Zhang Guimei founded the school in 2008. At that time, the school had only 17 teachers and less than 100 students.

In Huaping, a mountainous county o f L i j i ang , in the northwest of Yunnan province, some people are still living in poverty. Local education lags behind compared to other places, and some girls have limited access to schooling. In 1996, Zhang Guimei was transferred from Dali to Huaping. She first taught at the Central High School and later at the Minzu High School. She discovered that far more girls than boys dropped out of high school.

In 2002, she began to raise funds to build a free senior high school for girls from poor families in mountainous areas. She solicited help from the government and companies. "At first, many people thought she

was a fraud. The boss of one company even set a dog upon her to drive her away," recalled a colleague of Zhang. For more than five years she experienced se tbacks o rd inary peop le wouldn’t be able to tolerate.

In September 2008, the Girls' High School opened. All of the first students were from poor families in mountainous areas. The school did not have a campus. It didn’t even have a dormitory building or a canteen. Within six months, nine of the 17 teachers had applied for a transfer. However, Zhang and other teachers were determined that they were going to change the destiny of the girls that had enrolled. Three years later, the first 96 students of the school sat the national college entrance exams. When news came that all of them had earned high enough marks to be eligible for entry into higher learning institutions, everyone was excited beyond words.

Almost all the students come from remote places, so the school has never held a parent meeting in the past eleven years. Instead, Zhang has often paid home visits, to learn more about the students’ families and to keep their parents updated on their performance at school.

Zhang has paid several visits to the home of Lu Na, who is from He'ai Village, Rongjiang Township, Huaping County. Lu Na's father died of cancer when she was in her second senior high school year. Lu Na’s grief affected her academic performance. Zhang talked to Lu Na several times, to encourage her. She even tutored Lu Na at her own home during the Spring Festival holiday. In 2018, Lu Na was admitted to Qingdao University.

Once, Zhang was caught in heavy rain, on her way to a student’s home. She fell, but she still went on, to visit the student’s parents. Three days later, her chest still hurt. She went to hospital for an examination, only to discover her seventh and eighth ribs on the right side were broken.

The Girls' High School has become an example for local education, inspired by Zhang’s devotion and perseverance. After graduating from the school, almost all of the students have gone on to receive further education. In 2019, 118 students graduated from the school. 109 of them went to undergraduate college and the remaining nine went to junior college.

She is small and in her early sixties. In 2008, she founded the first senior high school in China for girls from disadvantaged families. Eleven years on, the school has sent more than 1,600 girls from mountainous areas to college. People think that her story is a miracle, and her students consider her as their own mother. She is Zhang Guimei, principal of the Girls' Senior High School in Huaping, Yunnan.

Sometimes I really wish I could have a good night’s sleep, but I simply can’t afford it. I am afraid that if I relax in my efforts, the girls will do the same.

I do no t want our graduates to keep thinking about what the school and I have done for them. I do not want them to carry such a mental burden. I just hope that they focus on their studies, and they will go further and fly higher in the future.

Connectivity with China will help Thailand develop further

In 1996 , when I f i r s t came to China, the sincere, f r i e n d l y a n d h o s p i t a b l e Chinese people made a deep impression on me. Now I travel to China almost every year.

Over the past 70 years, C h i n a h a s c o n s t a n t l y improved its infrastructure, i t s e d u c a t i o n a n d i t s technology. It is now leading the world in 5G technology, artificial intelligence and big data. China has blazed a path of development in keeping with its national conditions.

The Chinese government's p r a c t i c a l a n d e f f i c i e n t governance is an example for other countries.

I come from a rural area of Thailand, so I pay close attention to China's battle against poverty. China has helped hundreds of millions of people shake off poverty, w h i c h i s a r e m a r k a b l e achievement. We emphasize exchange, cooperation and mutual learning with Chinese communities.

In la te 2017, the f i rs t h i g h - s p e e d r a i l l i n e i n

Thai land—the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima high-s p e e d r a i l l i n e — s t a r t e d construction, with Chinese technology. I believe that connectivity with countries i n t h e r e g i o n i n c l u d i n g China will help Thailand to develop further.

( A d m i r a l S u r a k i Tanatong, director of the Thai -Chinese Strateg ic R e s e a r c h C e n t r e o f National Research Council of Thai land. This i s an abridged version of the original article.)

"It is cold down here! This is a totally different world from the outside!" Tang Yonghong shivered as he entered the technical department in the b a s e m e n t o f t h e Yu n n a n Provincial Museum. Indeed, the basement was not only colder than the outside by several degrees, but it also received much less visitors.

It was a long room, and it looked just like a handicraft workshop. The table by the entrance was covered with tools. Although it was during the day, several lights were on. Technicians in white or blue gowns were sitting at the table, restoring bronzes.

The technical department w h e r e Ta n g w o r k s w a s established in November 2005. It currently has a staff of nine people, who mainly restore or take preventative measures to protect the cultural relics of the Yunnan Provincial Museum. Sometimes they work for other museums within the province or elsewhere in the country. Since its establishment, the technical department has restored and

CULTURE

protected more than 5,000 cultural relics.

According to Tang, before beginning on the restoration of a cultural relic, the technical department has a lot of work to do. This includes taking pictures, weighing and testing. By analysing the composition, the level of oxidation and related issues, the technicians can work out a proper approach to the restoration.

The restoration process is like "walking a tightrope". Technicians must follow such principles as reversibi l i ty, minimum intervention and repairing the old as it used to be. In plain terms, technicians should relieve

cultural relics of their "illnesses" without subjecting them to an "overzealous treatment". This demands not only great knowledge and skill, but also care, precision and prudence.

"The cultural relics restorers are more than just craftsmen. They must also have good knowledge of science, technology, history and culture," said Mu Rui, who has been engaged in protecting and restoring cultural relics for more than 30 years. "As we work in the here and now, we are holding the past and the future in our hands. While restoring cultural relics, we fulfil the value of life." (Xinhua)

Chinese company participates in Dhaka ring road construction

On December 26th,2019, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Dhaka ring road project. China's Sichuan Road and Bridge (Group) Co. Ltd will participate in the construction of the project.

In 38 months, the original two-lane ring road of Dhaka will be converted into a four-lane expressway. It will be the first toll expressway in Bangladesh to be constructed with a public-private model.

The expressway, with a t o t a l l eng th o f 48 .11 kilometers, will involve an investment of about 2.844 billion RMB (US$ 4.065 billion). The Chinese and Bangladeshi companies will jointly operate it for 22 years.

(Xinhua)

Doctor on the move: Bringing light to fellow countrymen with cataracts

POVERTY ALLEVIATION

Yu Chaoqing is deputy head of the People's Hospital of Weixi Lisu Autonomous County in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Pre fec tu re . He is an ophthalmologist, and serves as director of the hospital 's otolaryngology department, but he is often on the move.

"When I graduated from college, I chose to return to my hometown, because I wanted to serve my fellow coun t rymen wi th wha t I had learned," Yu said. In 2002, he graduated f rom Kunming Medical College a n d b e c a m e a d o c t o r i n Weixin. However, instead of staying at the hospital, he often visits the farmers in the villages.

In 2007, when he was visiting Yongchun Township wi th a de lega t ion of the Yunnan Disabled Persons' Federa t ion , he not iced a high incidence of cataracts

among the local farmers. It was then that Yu planned to carry out a cataract survey.

From the second ha l f o f 2 0 0 8 o n w a r d s , Yu would spend his weekends carrying out screenings for villagers in the surrounding townships . " I conducted more than 70 operations that year. I was tired, but what I did was meaningful," Yu said with a broad smile.

Today Yu works with a

team. "Now we have a team of seven ophthalmologists. We take turns to conduct screenings for villagers. With more and better equipment, w e h a v e i m p r o v e d o u r efficiency. Medical workers from Kunming and Shanghai come here every year, to help us improve our skills, which has in turn helped poverty alleviation in rural areas," Yu said happily.

(Xiong Yan)

KALEDOSCOPE

Stories of police dog Erteng

Editor's note

Further reading

C h i n a ' s p o v e r t y alleviation practices have proven that women often play an important role in eradicating poverty. They are not only major family members but are also the key to preventing poverty spreading from generation to generation. Therefore, girls in poor families must have equal access to education.

Zhang’s words

He was on duty at Daheishan for a total of 2,982 days. Over the years he inspected 200,000 vehicles and 2 4 0 , 0 0 0 p i e c e s o f luggage, discovered 100 kilograms of drugs and helped with the arrest of 13 suspects.