Feature: Reliving father's dream on Africa's railways

Zhou Ping had not seen his father for five years when in primary school. Despite the biting solitude, Zhou always displayed his pride for his father -- he was from a glorious "foreign aid family," and his father was building the Tazara Railway in Africa.

Standing on the windy East African plateau, Zhou picked up this childhood sentiment. More than 40 years have passed, and 53-year-old Zhou is now a construction worker for another historic railway connecting the African countries of Ethiopia and Djibouti.

The Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, which officially opened service on Wednesday, is another Chinese-built trans-national rail in Africa following Tazara, which links Tanzania's Dar es Salaam with Zambia's Kapiri Mposhi. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang hailed it as the "Tazara railway in a new era".

In the time of two generations, Chinese-built railways in Africa have crossed countless technological mountains. What remained unchanged are the devotion of Chinese railway workers on the African continent and their silent promotion of Sino-African ties.

Despite its own economic hardship, China sent 50,000 workers in the 1970s to build the Tazara railway for Africa, which was then swept by an independence movement. More than 60 Chinese experts made the ultimate sacrifice there.

"The climate was very hot, and their living conditions were extremely tough," Zhou told Xinhua. "One trip from China to Tanzania took half a month on the ship, and because of that, he (my father) did not return to China until the construction was finished."

Though building railways in an unfamiliar African country remains a tough job for today's Chinese workers, better technology and equipment applied by Chinese firms have significantly raised their work efficiency and living standards.

"Take bridge building as an example, now a large bridge erection machine can place 12 plates a day, 38 meters each, while back in my father's time, when they could rely on nothing but manual labor, even one plate a day could not be achieved," Zhou said.

The Ethiopia-Djibouti line is the first overseas railway built using complete sets of Chinese standards and equipment. Its builders, China Railway Group (CREC) and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), say the plentiful experiences and advanced technologies accrued in China's railway sector have greatly facilitated their overseas projects.

No longer would Zhou need to pen down his love in letters that would be received by his family months later, as he did with his father in Tanzania. He can now chat with his family daily on the Internet and enjoy two free trips a year to China for family reunions.

DEVOTED FATHER, DEVOTED SON

Wen Feng, vice general manager of CREC's Xinyun branch, a contractor of the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, said about 10 percent of their Chinese workers here are from families with two generations of railway workers, and about 4-5 percent from three-generation railway families.

Zhou belongs to the latter category. His son is now also in Ethiopia operating a crane for the railway project.

It was never an easy decision, though.

Zhou's mother strongly opposed his participation in the project. "She thought work in Africa was tough and did not want her son and grandson to endure my father's hardship again."

But Zhou believes his father, who passed away many years ago, would side with him. "He always said building a railway was glorious, and it was also this belief that drove me here."

Zhou is also inheriting the "deep-rooted friendship" with Africans from his father. His team dug wells for villagers and hired many local workers. In return, the local herdsmen treated them cordially and always supported their work.

On Oct. 3, Zhou visited a track-laying center along the line where workers were unloading a train carrying relief food for drought-hit Ethiopia. It was the first mission given to the railway prior to its opening and one that steeped Chinese workers at the site in pride and patriotism.

Zhou has been in Ethiopia for four years, and plans to stay until his retirement in order to exceed his father's five years in Africa. His another wish is to visit Tanzania one day "so I can see the place where my father has once fought." Endit