The eternal waves of electricity on the plateau

In the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the Yellow River turns out of the first bend, it is located in Maqu County, the county with the highest average altitude in Gansu Province. Here is a group of people who are silently sticking to the Maqu County Radio Relay Station all year round, connecting the sky in the pastoral area with the eternal radio waves.

Maqu, meaning "Yellow River" in Tibetan, has been blessed by heaven with its magnificent natural features and made the living environment harsh and harsh. Maqu lives deep inland in the northwest, with frequent extreme weather and thin oxygen in winter. The cold season here lasts for more than 300 days, the average temperature is 1.2 degrees Celsius, and the altitude is close to 3600 meters, and the cold is the most obvious feature.

Maqutai, which is stationed here, is the station with the highest altitude, the worst natural environment, and the most difficult working and living conditions among the 118 radio relay stations in Gansu Province. The responsibility of Maqutai is to ensure that more than 50,000 farmers and herdsmen in Maqu County can listen to the radio anytime, anywhere.

The outage time within 100 hours cannot exceed 2 seconds. This is the unified regulation of the national radio and television system for radio stations, however, the staff of Maqu Station has achieved no suspension of broadcasting all year round for many years.

In the memory of deputy director Li Jihuan, blizzards, hailstorms, and lightning often visit this small broadcast station.

Sometimes the sky is clear and thunderous, and then the egg-sized hailstones fall in an instant. Sometimes the snow closes the mountains, and everyone can only squeeze vegetables for a few days in a row.

In the event of extreme weather, the duty officers must always be on the lookout for huge fireballs that jump along the cables and pull lines, as well as the winding fire snakes that split towards the tower. When the hail falling rapidly from the sky smashed the antenna cauldron into pots, and only the poles were left on the high-frequency head of the satellite antenna, the first reaction of the Maqutai staff was to "go to the machine room", they either wore clothes or held their hands to protect their heads, and arrived at the post at the fastest speed. At any time, the machine can not stop, the signal can not be interrupted, is the "belief" in the hearts of all people can not be broken.

Some people describe the employees of the Maqu County Radio Relay Station as follows: they are a group of "migratory birds", traveling to and from the world with an altitude difference of 2,000 meters, always just adapting to this end, and rushing to that end.

Moving far away is the ordeal that every Maqutai employee must endure.

Sun Jun, the director of the station, told reporters that the workers' homes are in other places, and the most recent is also in the cooperative city nearly 200 kilometers away. Most people's homes are located in Lanzhou, Baiyin, Longnan and other areas below 2,000 meters above sea level. From home to Taili, the height difference is nearly 2,000 meters, the distance is nearly 400 to 500 kilometers, and repeated experience of drunken oxygen and lack of oxygen is their daily life.

The crew leader, Huang Fujiang, is 31 years old and has spent 8 years in Maqutai. As we age, our sensitivity to high altitudes increases. "When I was young, I was used to everything, but I didn't have enough to eat." In recent years, his insomnia has become more and more frequent, and his hair has fallen out in large quantities. However, Huang Fujiang still chose to stick to it. "When I first applied for the position, I saw it here at a glance, and in the days of Maqutai, there were gains and losses, but I never regretted it."

Employee Liu Chun's family lives in Jingyuan County, Baiyin City, which is nearly 600 kilometers away from Maqu. Every time he came to work, he had to get up in the dark at three or four o'clock in the morning, go to the station to catch the few shuttles, and when he arrived at Taili at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, he was full of exhaustion. Many employees choose to drive themselves to work, basically have to drive for five or six hours, and encounter ice and snow road slippery in winter, and the time is longer.

Every time before going out, he would prepare medicine for his parents, prepare small snacks, clothes, toys for his children, and buy rice flour oil and daily necessities in advance. Before leaving, Liu Chun will also carry her daughter to the supermarket to choose a favorite toy. "My daughter loves dinosaur toys the most, and now the bed in the house is piled up all over the place."

However, as her daughter grew up, coaxing her daughter before going out became a problem for Liu Chun. "In the past, she was silly to say hello, but now she is in the car and does not get out of the car, and after coaxing her out of the car, I quickly start the car and run, afraid that the child will chase out." At this point, this simple northwestern man frowned, he was an optimistic person by nature, but his family was the most concerned in his heart.

Xiong Xijia is a name that maqutai employees cannot forget. He was originally the deputy director of Maqutai, and also the intimate "big brother" and "baby bear" of colleagues.

On April 19, 2019, Xiong Xijia died of multi-organ failure and acute pulmonary edema caused by altitude sickness while on duty at the unit. Left a daughter with a nickname "Plateau".

Xiong Xi's family is from Guizhou, he came to work in Maqu County in his 20s, and later transferred to Maqutai, also known as "Old Plateau".

Speaking of Xiong Xi's family, colleagues are full of admiration and nostalgia. He is both the deputy director and the "logistics minister" in the station. Before the emergency, he always rushed to get on; colleagues in Taili had concerns and always talked to him; the induction cooker for cooking in Taili was broken, he gave up his rotation, and after a few hours he bought and shipped the new induction cooker; when he lived in Maqu County, during the New Year's Festival, Taili workers often ate at his home, and during the Spring Festival, he often sent Chinese New Year's Eve meals to the duty personnel. Which colleague has difficulties at home, he is always generous.

However, nearly 30 years of hard work in the plateau have infected the Xiong Xi family with an illness. High-altitude hypertension, bronchial asthma... The disease constantly invaded the body, making him weigh only more than 90 pounds, looking dry and thin.

Xiong Xi's family accidentally caught a cold during their duty, and Sun Jun and other colleagues advised him to go down and rest. Stubborn, he still chose to stick to it.

One morning at 6 o'clock in the morning, Xiong Xi's family knocked on Liu Chun's dormitory door and asked him to accompany him to Lanzhou to see a doctor. Liu Chun realized that the situation was not good, and he quickly called another colleague and immediately started the car to rush to Lanzhou. However, Xiong Xi's family failed to persist to Lanzhou, and halfway through the car, he calmly died in the arms of his colleagues.

After the death of Xiong Xijia, Maqutai was awarded the title of "National Advanced Grassroots Party Organization", and Xiong Xijia himself was posthumously awarded the title of "2019 National Radio and Television System Advanced Individual". During the interview, the reporter found that there were several couple files and father-daughter files in the station. Here, it is not a person who pays, but a family.

At the foot of the majestic Anima Qing Snow Mountain, the Maqutai workers have consistently stood on the plateau, without complaint or regret, and have supported a "window" for farmers and herdsmen in Tibetan areas to understand the outside world and never close, this tenacious and beautiful collective like a Kelsang flower, forever connected to the eternal electric waves over the pastoral area. (Hu Weijie)

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph