Fired up for success

A soldier overcomes his limited early education to come to terms with a new generation of tanks. Wang Huazhong reports in Beijing.

Knowing that his battalion was going to be equipped with the latest model of tank, Jia Yuanyou was full of expectation - and fear.

He mentions an entry in his diary for 1999, which describes getting in a tank for the first time: "Can I master the complicated radio system?"