Chinese graduates are giving up the prospect of high-paying jobs to help relief efforts in Sichuan Province after the May 12 earthquake.

More than 200 graduates from Tsinghua University, one of the country's best schools, will work in quake-affected Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

Wen Li, an electronics major at Beijing's elite Peking University, was one of them. He chucked his offer with a foreign company based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, and instead headed for Mianzhu, one of the worst-hit quake areas.

Three other undergraduates from Renmin University, Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications and Southwest Jiaotong University, all first-class institutes, joined him.

They will work at the Dongfang Steam Turbine Works, a Mianzhu factory that lost nearly 700 workers in the quake.

Liu Zhiqian, publicity official with the factory, said another 1,000 workers were injured, about a 10th of the total staff.

"We all went to high school in Mianzhu," Wen said. "Our decision was not just on the spur of the moment. We thought about it for quite a long time. I know that I have to bear the consequences of my decision. Since we choose to work there, we are bound to work hard."

These elite students gave up secure job offers to help rebuild the shattered rural areas.

Wen currently had no idea how much he would get paid at Dongfang, but he remained optimistic. "They have dormitories and a canteen. That's enough for me."

Liu said the factory welcomed the students. "This reflects changes in their world values. They used to choose well-paid jobs on the coast. It proves they are now willing to make sacrifices."

Wang Bin, a postgraduate student at Shaanxi Province's top Xi'an Jiaotong University, dumped his job in Hangzhou, capital of the prosperous coastal Zhejiang Province. He then applied to work at the Dongfang Steam Turbine Works.

"The quake-affected areas need people like us. I am ready to fit into the local society and be a Sichuan resident," he said.

Cao Lili, another undergraduate from Nankai University of Tianjin Municipality, persuaded her employer to give her one year off for voluntary work. "I was moved by relief volunteers and would like to follow them," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2008)