Among the towering peaks of the Hengduan Mountains, the Lancang River cleaves through the gorges with thunderous force, surging ever onward. This ceaselessly rushing river has borne witness to more than two decades of steadfast dedication and innovative exploration by a hydropower builder.

From a green technician to a chief engineer standing on his own, Yang Yuli—chief engineer of the Construction Engineering Company of Sinohydro Bureau 14 and chief engineer of the Upper Lancang River Hydropower Project—has used technology as his brush and sweat as his ink to write the sincerity and perseverance of a hydropower builder across the lofty mountains and steep ridges.

A Hydropower Life Wrapped in a Single Towel Blanket

In the summer of 1997, a young man named Yang Yuli had just stepped out of the university gates, his eyes gleaming with visions of the future. With a simple pack on his back, he bade farewell to the bustle of the city and plunged headlong into the deep-mountain construction site of the Luosiwan Power Station in Zhongdian, Yunnan. From that moment on, his life became inextricably bound to the Lancang River.

Twenty-eight years have passed in the blink of an eye. His footprints have covered seven national-level hydropower stations across the Lancang River basin: from Dachaoshan to Longtan, from Xiaowan to Wunonglong, and on to Huangdeng, TB, and the Upper Lancang River Hydropower Project... His role has grown from an inexperienced technician into a chief engineer directing operations from the command tent, yet what has not changed—besides his original aspiration to "repay the rivers with what I have learned"—is an old towel blanket that has accompanied him for more than twenty years.

That towel blanket has long since been washed pale, its edges pilled, and it has even worn through in a few small holes. Colleagues who have worked with him for years often tease him: "Old Yang, that towel blanket of yours ought to retire! Look at those holes—like a sieve. Keep using it and it'll let the light through!"

Whenever this happens, Yang Yuli just gives a chuckle, rubbing the pills on the blanket's edge with a hint of reluctance in his eyes: "Hey, it still covers me well enough. You don't know—this thing has been through thick and thin with me on construction sites for nearly twenty years. In summer I spread it out to keep the mosquitoes off; in winter I wrap myself in it to stay warm. Throwing it away would feel like losing a stretch of my life."

This towel blanket has borne witness to countless sleepless nights. As a technical leader, Yang Yuli has always practiced his "front-line work method"—the belief that "the answer is always on the front line." Plans are finalized on the front line, problems are solved on the front line, and skills are tempered on the front line. Stationed on site year in and year out, he has spent more than 300 days a year at construction sites, accumulating nearly 9,000 days and nights since he began his career.

The introduction of over a thousand technical measures, the drafting of hundreds of major plans, the publication of dozens of professional papers, participation in and leadership of more than a dozen research projects and construction methods, and the tackling of more than thirty national patents... Behind every one of these figures is his figure toiling day and night at the project site. He often says: "When a technical problem just sits there, it's like a fishbone stuck in my throat—I can't sleep soundly until it's pulled out."

That old towel blanket carries the perseverance of countless winters and summers by the Lancang River, and it also gently wraps the pure heart of a builder forging instruments for the nation.

From "Luosiwan Apprentice" to "Underground Engineering Expert"

A towering building rises from the ground. Every brick and tile of Yang Yuli's technical edifice has come from the tempering of practice.

When he first arrived at Luosiwan Power Station as a technician, he always had a stubborn, never-say-die spirit about him. By day, he was like a nail driven into the construction site, boring tunnels, spraying anchor support, and pouring concrete alongside the workers, covered in mud and sweat; by night, under the dim yellow light of the work shed, he buried himself in drawings and specifications, "chewing over every word," repeatedly comparing and digesting the problems he had encountered during the day against theoretical knowledge.

It was precisely this hard study and solid work—"a body of mud by day, a single lamp by night"—that enabled him to stand out in the construction technology of diversion tunnels and the design of the temporary trestle bridge for the dam's spillway openings. When news came that the load test had succeeded, the site erupted in cheers; at that moment, his ideal and conviction of serving the country through technology grew ever more rock-solid.

Two years later, he was transferred to Dachaoshan Power Station, shouldering the heavy responsibility of concrete team leader. Faced with what was then Asia's largest tailrace bifurcated pipe—a tough nut to crack—he relied on his eager-to-learn, daring spirit and solid technical foundation to lead his team in repeatedly optimizing construction techniques and strictly controlling every process, ultimately completing the task with high quality and efficiency. The project later won the "Luban Prize," the highest honor in China's construction industry, and this experience laid a solid foundation for his later conquest of a series of world-class technical challenges.

At the TB Hydropower Station, he keenly identified the pain points of traditional underground engineering ventilation systems—high energy consumption and extensive management—and took the lead in building the "Intelligent Ventilation and Occupational Health Online Monitoring System for Underground Powerhouses." Through IoT and big-data technologies, the system can perceive environmental changes in real time and regulate intelligently, ultimately achieving a major breakthrough of 30% energy savings and setting a new standard for ventilation in underground engineering across the industry.

Moving on to the Upper Lancang River Hydropower Project, faced with the worldwide challenge of large deformation of soft rock in the tailrace tunnel, he joined forces with multiple top universities and research institutions to form a cross-disciplinary research team and build a digital command and management platform integrating monitoring, early warning, and decision-making. Through green-power-driven large-scale machinery construction and full-life-cycle visual management, it provided a powerful "smart brain" for safe and efficient construction under complex geological conditions.

Drawing the Blade to Crack World-Class Challenges

Throughout Yang Yuli's engineering career, he has repeatedly used "technical blades" gleaming with wisdom to cleave through the numerous obstacles in hydropower construction.

Faced with one of China's longest inclined shafts—442 meters long with a 32° slope—at Xiaowan Hydropower Station, traditional techniques struggled to guarantee quality and efficiency. Yang Yuli boldly innovated, drawing on past experience to creatively adopt full-section single-pass slipform forming technology. The resulting concrete lining was as smooth as a mirror with flowing lines, praised by the owner as a "model project" and contributing a crucial stroke to Xiaowan Station's winning of the National Quality Engineering Award. The "Construction Technology for Long Inclined Shafts with Gentle Dip Angles and Full-Section Slipforming at Xiaowan Hydropower Station" won the Group Company's Second Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress.

At Huangdeng Hydropower Station, hailed as "the most difficult station to build in the Lancang River basin," Yang Yuli drew his blade once again. In the concrete construction of the water diversion and power generation system, he led his team to take on the highly demanding craft of "finish-free concrete." Through countless site inspections, demonstrations, and process experiments, the concrete walls they poured came out smooth and lustrous, with a light and uniform color and crisp, elegant lines, achieving the artistic effect of "a lotus rising from clear water, naturally unadorned"—requiring no finishing work whatsoever. Huangdeng Station thus became the project with the widest application of finish-free concrete among hydropower projects nationwide, setting a new benchmark in the history of hydropower construction.

At TB Station, he stood at the forefront of technological innovation. Faced with the excavation of a deeply buried powerhouse, he introduced remote-sensing unmanned excavators for mucking in inclined shafts, completely solving the safety challenges of high-risk operations in inclined shaft construction; the innovative "Construction Method for Excavating High-Section Underground Caverns Using the Reserved Rock Cover Method" cleverly avoided disturbance to the surrounding rock from simultaneous construction above and below in tall sections, not only reducing construction intensity but also shortening the critical schedule by a full four months; and the "Cutting Device and Construction Method for Rock Bench of Rock-Bolted Crane Beam in Underground Powerhouses" that he compiled won a national invention patent, once again demonstrating the hardcore strength of this "technology fanatic."

Passing the Torch: A Beacon for Young Engineers

"A single flower does not make spring; a hundred flowers in full bloom bring spring to the garden." As a technical leader, Yang Yuli well knows that a technical team capable of fighting hard battles cannot do without the passing on of spirit and skill.

He is both a strict mentor and a loving father figure. For every young newcomer, he tailors a growth plan and imparts his experience without reservation. No matter how busy the construction tasks, he makes time from his rest to organize special technical exchange sessions and personally explain the key and difficult points.

What he loves most is to take young people straight into the construction site, conducting "live-fire teaching" amid the roar of machinery and the echo of blasts, guiding them hand in hand to solve problems and distill innovative results.

Late at night when all is quiet, the lights in the project chief engineer's office are often still on. When a young technician clutching drawings nervously knocks on his door, he is always greeted with a gentle smile: "Well, young man, which bend in the road did you get stuck on today?"

What follows is patient, meticulous explanation, leaving line after line of clear annotations on the drawings. What he hands over is not only the key to unlocking technical problems, but also the spark that ignites career ideals and lights the way forward.

Today, more than thirty technical backbones he has personally trained have grown into pillars carrying the load on various key projects. They clearly bear the genetic imprint of Yang Yuli's work style: "rooted on the front line, striving for excellence, and daring to innovate."

From his first steps at Luosiwan to directing operations at the Upper Lancang River Hydropower Project, Yang Yuli has vividly interpreted the "iron army spirit" of the new era through twenty-eight years of youth. He is like a boulder by the Lancang River—unshakable despite wind and rain; grounded in superb professional competence and modeled on a firm, responsible work style, he has poured monument after monument amid the surging waters.

As he himself said: "Building a hydropower station means not only conquering nature with technology, but also winning the future through work style." These plain words are the deepest confession of Yang Yuli—this son of the Lancang River—to the cause he loves with all his heart.