No earth-shattering deeds—he takes hardship first and never counts personal gain or loss; devoted to whatever job he does, he battles year-round on power-line posts in mountains, gorges, hills, riversides and fields. He is Bai Yongjie, one of the winners of the 2016 "Top Ten Craftsmen" honor of the First Company of China Railway Wuhan Electrification Bureau Group, and power team leader of the power and substation operation team of the Tianmen-Xiantao-Qianjiang Project Department of the First Company of China Railway Wuhan Electrification Bureau Group.

Born in October 1974 in a rural village of Xinjin County, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Bai Yongjie took over his father's job in 1995 at the then original unit (the Fourth Section of the Second Company of China Railway Electrification Bureau Group) and became an electrified railway worker. His first work station was the Xiangyang-Shimen electrified railway; the Wuhan-Puqi Line, Chongqing-Huaihua Line, Guiyang Hub, Guizhou-Guangxi Line, Lanzhou-Wuwei Second Line, Guangzhou-Zhuhai Freight Line and Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Railway are footprints of his past struggles.

 

In February 2016, he was transferred to the First Company of China Railway Wuhan Electrification Bureau Group as power team leader of the power and substation operation team of the Tianmen-Xiantao-Qianjiang Project Department. The Tianmen-Xiantao-Qianjiang Railway is located in the Jianghan Plain of Hubei Province, where many areas are large rice paddies and ponds. According to construction safety requirements, power-line construction in rice paddies and ponds should involve waterproof rubber boots, one-piece waterproof suits, etc. But at the construction front line this was impractical, and these difficulties had to be overcome. Most of the soil in the Jianghan Plain is extremely sticky; step in and you sink into the mud. If workers wore such protective gear, every step forward in the water would be extremely inconvenient. After many attempts over a day or two, it was not only slow but simply impossible to advance the construction speed. Bai Yongjie saw this and burned with anxiety. Early the next morning he came to the edge of the rice paddy, and without the slightest hesitation rolled up his trouser legs first and led more than 10 workers of the work crew straight into the rice paddy in full force. Where small ponds were not deep, they directly shouldered their construction tools and began the day's work. After long soaking, plus the pesticides and fertilizers sprayed by farmers in the paddy fields, within a week the workers' feet were already swollen, and some even festered and developed sores. Leading more than 10 employees, he did not retreat half a step, did not utter a single complaint, and did not cry out once about being tired. Hard work pays off: within a month, in the shortest time, with reasonable organization and "zero" idle time, he outstandingly completed the tasks assigned by the operation team. At the same time, he and his more than 10 employees won unanimous praise and commendation from the project department leaders!

 

Every evening, Bai Yongjie also assists the team leader in arranging the whole team's work for the next day.

Over more than 20 years of work, mountains, gorges, hills, riversides and fields have witnessed Bai Yongjie's work, and the 2016 "Top Ten Craftsmen" honor of the First Company of China Railway Wuhan Electrification Bureau Group is the interpretation of Bai Yongjie's work achievements.