Some people have a strong sense of dedication and perseverance and they don’t hesitate to act with loyalty for the people.

The Spring Festival is probably the happiest festival for Chinese people. Families gather together around their tables full of delicacies and the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. But this year, the COVID-19 outbreak made a sudden appearance. Many people chose to go against the current and leave home to fight the epidemic. Yang Lei, as the person in charge of the infrastructure project, told us: “This is the first New Year’s Eve that I’ve spent without my family. The sound of the excavators overshadowed the sound of firecrackers”. Despite being far away from his family, Yang said with a smile in his face: “But I am very proud to witness everything that is happening here in the construction of the Xiaotangshan Hospital”.

The construction of the Beijing Xiaotangshan Designated Hospital was a major task for Yang Lei. After entering his office, we couldn’t help but notice a huge poster on the wall. In that poster, it was an action plan for different tasks in the hospital. Yang introduced us to the plan and explained with detail the difficulties that they’re struggling with. Without a doubt, this is not only a responsibility but a mission for Yang Lei. It seems that he has all the project in his head, but this was not his only task. Yang and his team also worked really hard to provide a safe, reliable and comfortable environment for patients and medical staff.

This project involved a total of 330,000 participants, with an average daily of 15,000 construction workers. The security measures were quite strict, as a result, there were zero infections or casualties. The construction area included hundreds of kilometers of indoor pipelines and hundreds of sets of professional equipment. 90,000 square meters of municipal roads were also built.

The upgrading and reconstruction of the wards of Area B in the Hospital played a vital role in this project. During the construction, they encountered a water seepage in the foundation pit, which affected the ongoing work. Yang led his team and they worked overnight to solve the problem on time.

Yang Lei said: “We work on 24 hours shift”. Yang and his team spent several nights with proper sleep, sweating due to the high-intensity work which led them to a severe physical overdraft. However, despite these hardships, especially when everyone was fearful and pessimistic, he showed courage and did not flinch from the situation.

There are no natural born heroes, the needs of the country and its people take the best of some of us. Not too many are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect others. Even if we can’t see them, we can find heroes almost in every place affected by the virus. Yang Lei showed us his heroism with his actions, which have spread positive energy to everyone around him.