In 1957, the Chinese woman was stopped by United States Customs and found 2 mysterious small medicine bottles, and the woman begged: Give you $6,800, can you return the medicine bottles to me? Afterwards, Customs regretted it. Sixty-six years ago, $6,800 was a huge amount of money to buy a few houses, and it was all of the woman's savings.
On an ordinary winter morning in 1957, the port of San Francisco, United States, was as busy as usual, and customs officers habitually checked every passenger's luggage.
Among the many returning travelers was an inconspicuous Chinese woman, dressed in plain clothes, with a slightly tired face but a gritty glint in her eyes. Her name is Lin Lanying.
This day is of great significance to Lin Lanying, because she is about to embark on a journey back to China. She is one of China's top scientists, who completed her studies in the United States and has achieved brilliant scientific achievements.
However, despite the high salaries offered to her by many companies in United States, she resolutely decided to return to China, which was then fashionable and poor, to contribute to the motherland.
In her luggage, she carried two small vials that were extremely important to her, containing silicon and germanium single crystals, the result of years of hard work and cutting-edge technology in the field of semiconductors at the time.
When Lin Lanying was about to pass through customs, an accident happened.
Customs officers routinely searched her luggage and found a huge sum of money – $6,800. This was equivalent to the value of several houses at the time, and it was all Lin Lanying's savings in the United States over the years.
Faced with this money, customs officers immediately raised their vigilance, believing that this huge amount of money was a sensitive item and must be confiscated.
Lin Lanying knows the importance of money, but compared to this money, she cares more about the two small medicine bottles. These two vials may seem unremarkable, but they are worth far more than money, because these two bottles of crystals not only represent years of painstaking research, but also have a direct impact on the future of China's semiconductor industry.
She knew very well in her heart that if she could not bring these two bottles of silicon and germanium single crystals back to China, the scientific and technological progress of the motherland would be greatly affected.
She hurriedly begged customs: "You can take the money, but please return my medicine bottle to me." Her voice was not loud, but her tone was full of earnestness and anxiety.
Customs officers apparently did not realize the true value of the two vials, focusing only on the $6,800 they were holding in their hands. They looked at Lin Lanying and felt that she was making concessions for the money, obviously without any suspicion, so they agreed to her request.
In this way, Lin Lanying successfully boarded the ship back to China with her two medicine bottles containing single crystal materials. She knew that although her savings had been confiscated by customs, her most important scientific research results had been preserved.
She breathed a sigh of relief, her heart full of excitement and joy.
After boarding the ship, she looked at the distant coast of United States and her mind went back to the past few years. During her time in the United States, Lin Lanying participated in the research of semiconductor materials and made great breakthroughs, especially in the research of silicon and germanium single crystals, and her contributions were significant.
However, she never forgot her original purpose - she came to United States to learn advanced science and technology, and eventually bring this knowledge back to China to help her country achieve breakthroughs in science and technology.
Lin Lanying's return to China was not smooth. Before returning to China, she had applied for return to China many times, but because of the tense relations between China and the United States at that time, the United States repeatedly obstructed her, and some people even deliberately delayed her return procedures.
However, Lin Lanying's determination was unshakable, and she finally obtained permission to return to China through many efforts. Despite this, the customs emergency almost kept her scientific research results in the United States, and thanks to her resourcefulness, she finally successfully brought silicon and germanium monocrystals back to China.
After returning to her motherland, Lin Lanying immediately devoted herself to scientific research. The silicon and germanium monocrystals she brought back had a profound impact on China's semiconductor industry.
At that time, China's semiconductor technology was almost blank, and the two medicine bottles brought back by Lin Lanying became the cornerstone of China's semiconductor industry.
Under her leadership, the research team quickly carried out research and successfully developed China's first germanium single crystal in November 1957. This breakthrough has laid the foundation for China's scientific and technological progress and directly promoted the progress of national defense science and technology.
Lin's research is not limited to research labs. Her research results also had a significant impact on China's national defense construction, especially in the later "Two Bombs and One Satellite" project, and her research and development of silicon epitaxial materials provided technical support for the success of the project.
It is precisely because of her unremitting efforts that China's semiconductor industry has achieved leapfrog development in a very short period of time.
After confiscating Lin Lanying's $6,800, customs may not have realized that they had neglected the real "treasure". Later, when they learn the true value of the two vials she brought back, they are remorseful.
If they had carefully examined these two vials at the time, perhaps China's semiconductor industry would have suffered a major setback.
However, history has no ifs, Lin Lanying with her wisdom and courage brought these valuable scientific research achievements back to the motherland, and made outstanding contributions to the scientific and technological progress of the motherland.
