时间：2022-09-19 02:32:42
At 57 seconds, 59 minutes, six o’clock on October 1, 2010, Chang’e Two lunar probe blasted off successfully from Xichang Launch Center. The launch was televised nationwide. In Desheng Town, Pingchang County, Sichuan Province, people went wild. They celebrated the successful liftoff by beating drums and gongs and setting off fireworks.
The residents of Desheng Town did so for a reason. The chief designer of this project is Wu Weiren. He is from Dubai Village under the jurisdiction of Desheng Town. Wu is very dear to them.
Wu Weiren was born in October, 1953 into a farmer’s family in Dubai Village. He is the eldest of the six siblings. Cut off from the outside world, the village is in the southern part of the Daba Mountains. It had some military strategic significance in the past. In 1933, the Red Army once stationed there during its Long March. An uncle of Wu Weiren joined the Red Army then.
In September 1960, Wu Weiren, who was nearly 8 years old, entered the local primary school. Though started late, he was academically brilliant. He finished junior primary school and came back to his village when schools were shut down during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). It was not until 1971 when he was 18 years old that he went to senior high school. After his graduation, he came back to the village again. This time, he was elected by villagers to be the head of the production team. The educated student applied science to farming. Under his leadership, the villagers conducted many projects. Gradually, the poorest village turned itself into one of the richest in the county.
But Wu yearned for more education. In 1975, the county got a few quotas for sending local young people to college. Wu applied. He successfully passed the screening and became a major of radio studies at China Science and Technology University.
Villagers chipped in and bought him a pair of shoes and new cloths. A villager gave him a sweater.
Upon graduation, Wu was employed by a space research institute in Beijing. As soon as he received his first monthly payment, he made arrangements for his father to come to Beijing whereas his mother stayed home to take care of his young siblings. His father spent a month in Beijing sightseeing all the world-class attractions. The junior bought new cloths for his parents when his father was to go home. He also bought five kilograms of caddies and asked his father to distribute them among villagers. Back home, every one said Wu Weiren had the village in his heart.
Whenever Wu came back to visit his parents, he distributed candies to villagers. He did not change a bit. He chatted with villagers. He never mentioned what he did in Beijing. But everyone in the village knew he was a scientist.
His home in Beijing is the Beijing Office of his hometown. Every visitor from Desheng Town visits Wu Weiren at his home.
On May 9, 2008, Wu Weiren’s father, who lived with his daughter in the capital of Pingchang County, came back alone to visit the village. He fell. Villagers who came to meet him carried him in a hurry to the county hospital. He had a cerebral hemorrhage. Wu Weiren rushed back to see his father. The father died. Wu Weiren found out what exactly had caused his father’s fall. There was no highway to their home village. The rural paths were difficult to negotiate and some sections were treacherous. Villagers told the son that his father had come back to see if it was possible to find some investment and build a highway.
Wu Weiren went back to Beijing. He soon mailed 40,000 yuan, what was all he had at that time, to his second brother Wu Yuren. By that time, none of his brothers and sisters lived in the village. The villagers were touched by Wu Weiren’s generosity.
In June 2010, Wu Weiren was appointed chief designer of China’s moon project. Back in Pingchang County, the news caused sensation, making everyone proud. Nowadays, local people in Desheng Town introduce their hometown by saying that Wu Weiren, the man in charge of China’s moon project, is a top-class scientist whose roots are in Desheng Town.