The postman who always delivers

For the past three decades, Du Dengwen has been one of the few connections between residents in the depths of Huping Mountain and the outside world.

The 56-year-old has, literally, measured with his feet the tortuous and steep mountain paths running through the wilderness of the area that sits in the northwest of Central China's Hunan province.

Du has delivered mail and goods to the villagers from their loved ones, most of whom have migrated to the distant cities for a living.

His presence always brings joy to the mountain residents, because it means letters or parcels of huge sentimental or practical value are coming their way.

Huping Mountain falls under the jurisdiction of Shimen county in Changde city, but is 110 kilometers from the county's downtown area. It is characterized by deep valleys and hundreds of perilous peaks that are more than 1,000 meters above sea level and is known as the provincial ridge.

Yet, many villages are scattered across the mountainous area. The complex landscape had deterred efforts to build roads and lay down communication cables.

In the past, the only eight postman delivery paths in the city of Changde were all in the mountain neighborhoods, and had to be traversed on foot.

Du joined the local post station in March 1990 and was immediately charged with serving more than 5,000 residents in 13 villages tucked away in the woods.

These include five villages that are furthermost from the county center.

A round trip to cover all of the villages under his responsibilities runs about 180 km, and the only thing he could fall back on before 2017 was a bicycle that the post station offered.

Even so, only two villages were accessible by cycling, while the rest could only be accessed over rugged roads, upon which Du had to walk.

"It took me five days on the road for a weekly shift in the 1990s," Du recalls.

He had to climb steep mountain ladders, cross suspension bridges and thread his way through narrow and perilous trails.

"Some sections on the edge of the cliff required both hands and feet to get through," Du says.

"When it rained or snowed, I had to be more cautious about it becoming slippery," he adds.

Some road sections were practically vertical and were infamous for claiming lives.

To avoid the risks, villagers had to take a detour by bypassing several mountains to get to the outside.

Yet, Du had long overcome the fear through years of practice.

"I guess practice makes perfect," he says, half-jokingly.

The arduous return trips saw Du wear out more than 110 pairs of shoes and more than 3,000 crutches.

Based on his worksheets, Du had walked 130,000 km at work and his efforts have earned him the nickname "angel courier" among locals.

Traveling in the mountains, Du often encountered wild animals, such as boars, foxes and bears. He would adeptly take cover and dodge them.

"I just waited for them to leave before continuing to hit the road," he recalls.

The poor communication signals back then also caused concern for his family and they advised him to quit and find another job. But, Du had clearly developed a close bond with the local villagers and refused to give up on his challenging job.

Five days a week in the mountain made it a necessity for Du to stay over at villagers' homes for the nights.

"They were particularly enthusiastic and even fought for their turn to have me in," Du says.

"It is clear that they have come to treat me like their own family members."

He also got to know many villagers better through the interactions during his stay.

Du made a point of taking note of their requirements and tried his best to answer their prayers on his own.

Liu Yuanhong from Shuitian village in the mountain suffers from epilepsy and is unable to work. His parents are in their 80s, and the pressure of life had made him pretty desperate. After Du learned about Liu's conditions, he dug into his own pocket to buy daily necessities and epilepsy medicine and delivered them to his home. Du also collected information on how to treat epilepsy and shared it with Liu.

Through nearly two years of treatment, Liu's condition has greatly improved.

"If I hadn't met Du, I could have died on several occasions," Liu says.

Du also took the initiative to clean a local nursing home, where more than 30 elderly people resided, during his newspaper delivery to the facility. In addition, he often purchased cooking oil and rice for them.

Du's acts of kindness and generosity have not only endeared him to the mountain villagers but also earned their trust and respect. Many locals have come to see him as a pillar of strength in their lives.

"It kind of makes you persist and reluctant to give up and just leave," Du says.

Although his salary is not much, he has generously lent a helping hand to some villagers to get through difficult situations on his way to deliver the mail.

In 2015, Du was named a "Touching China" role model for Hunan by the provincial government.

To his relief, things have been picking up in recent years, as the country has managed to realize its poverty eradication plan and is pushing for rural vitalization strategy and overall promotion of new rural construction.

"Road construction (in parts of Shimen county) started in 2017 and 2018," Du recalls.

To date, well-paved roads have been built to connect most of the villages off the beaten tracks in Shimen county. For those who lived too deep in the woods, they have been relocated to places with easy access to public transportation.

"Many of them have moved into nice apartments now," Du says.

He himself has benefited from the positive changes taking place in the rural areas.

"I don't have to walk all my way to their places anymore," he says.

His old transportation, the bike, has also become history.

"We postmen now all drive our own cars at work and then have the expenses reimbursed by the company," he says.

"Everything is so much easier now, and I can finish all the daily assigned delivery and make it back home."

As local life gets better, Du has a new responsibility now.

He buys goods at the request of the villagers, such as rice and cooking oil.

Although Du is on the home stretch of retirement, he says: "If villagers need me, I will keep delivering for them."