Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake

    By Xinhua Writer Gong Yidong

    DEYANG, SICHUAN, June 18 (Xinhua) -- 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."