Dovetail studies with what country needs, scholar says

Building New China

He was assigned to the Harbin Institute of Technology as a graduate student. "I had never experienced such cold weather. The temperatures in Harbin could drop to-40 C in the winter and the diet was quite different from Shanghai," he said. "However, when I saw the whole city was under construction, I was so excited to see the vigorous development of our country."

In his first year, Qin studied only Russian to break down language barriers with soviet experts working in the city.

He intended to continue to his mechanical manufacturing studies after the first year, but was instead assigned to learn boiler making from the soviets.

"The institute founded the first boiler manufacturing facility of the People's Republic of China in the autumn of 1954," he said. "It was also the first time I'd heard the word 'boiler', but I knew it must be something needed for the country's construction."

He changed his major to thermal engineering without hesitation.

In the spring of 1955, due to a shortage of teachers, Qin began to give courses on boiler manufacturing to undergraduate and graduate students. "I was still a student myself, so I was always worried that I couldn't make my students understand," he said.

To enrich his knowledge, he stayed up late reading Russian textbooks and sorting through experts' notes.

In 1963, Qin published China's first textbook on boiler manufacturing.