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Energetic young workers build a township of trust, hope

By Yu Tianyu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-22 07:58

Wang Xiwu, a 28-year-old engineer, works at Shenhua's coal-to-liquids plant in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [China Daily]

Huge tanks, tall towers, complex pipelines and vapor emitting chimneys greet visitors to the Shenhua coal-to-liquids (CTL) project at the border of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region in Shaanxi province.

It takes about half an hour by car from the nearby Ordos Airport to the CTL plant via a brand-new highway that connects the project with the rest of the society.

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The plant looks like a big sprawling city with its unique architecture and people, many of them wearing white gowns, working in buildings of different sizes.

Outside the plant is a big and modern coal mine, from where trucks load coal for transport to the CTL facility.

Lin Changping, board director of Shenhua Coal-to-Liquids and Chemical Co Ltd, said before the facility came up the whole area used to be an uninterrupted stretch of wilderness.

"Energetic people have changed all this in their quest to fulfill their ambitions," he said.

The project employs nearly 1,200 people, Lin said, with over 60 percent of them born in the 1980s, a generation that was regarded as a group of little princes and princesses.

Unlike Beijing and Shanghai, the choice destinations of most young people in China, the bungalows here are mostly alongside the roads, while a few billboards dot the horizon with both Chinese and Mongolian characters written on them. With no shopping malls, noisy pubs or clubs, life here is quiet and serene.

The plant itself is humming with activity, with employees monitoring various measuring instruments and screens, often taking notes or talking to each other. Many of them look very young but have the temperament of leaders.

"I do appreciate these young people who are committed to the CTL project here," said Liu Dongming, manager, coal liquefaction production.

Wang Xiwu, a 28-year-old engineer, has been working in the CTL project for three years. Born in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province, Wang became interested in coal liquefaction at a young age. "It is a new and leading edge field and there is so much room for us to put our talents to good use," he said.

The project itself is something no one has attempted before, so every one is learning, looking for errors then correcting and improving them, said Shu Geping, technology director of the coal-to-liquids program.

Wang added that he and his colleagues have also grown with the CTL project. He is now in charge of technology and operations for the project. Sometimes he also visits Internet forums and engages in discussions with netizens who strongly oppose coal liquefaction projects.

"As a person who is so close to the project, I think it is important that I espouse its importance and also clarify facts," Wang said.

The ratio of men to women is nine to one and there are often concerns from employees over their lives and marriages.

But as Wang says, "coal liquefaction is a prosperous field and my career is also moving along well. So if I do look for a partner, it would have to be someone who has similar interests and ambitions."

Many of his colleagues are also thinking on the same lines, he added.

Kenneth G Tasker, director and technical advisor, Axens North America Inc, a company that provides engineering design and technical services, has been involved with the project for five years.

"We have a team of five people here currently and many more during the design stages," he said.

Tasker does not have much to complain about and says he can buy most things he needs, except for cheese and butter, while the overall quality of life is good. "Sometimes I go to Beijing and come back with two full suitcases," he said.

Entertainment is also not much of an issue. "There are some discos here and young people can go and enjoy themselves, but not for me, as I have to work all the time," said Tasker.

Recreation has also been taken into consideration at the project. The residential area in the CTL plant has sports venues and karaoke bars.

Lin said more such options are being planned and constructed.

After the successful trials on the CTL project, the first of its kind in China, employees are busy packing their luggage and heading back to their hometowns for the Spring Festival gathering. Many of them were seen carrying one or two piece of black waste slag along as well, as souvenirs and mementos of the successful trial. And many of them are looking forward to May when the company would conduct another trial before it starts regular production.