A Chinese oil expert and Beijing Olympic torchbear in Daqing here on Saturday called up of the passing on of Olympic spirits in daily work.
"The Olympic spirit will always inspire us to march forward," said Wang Qimin, 70-year-old who relayed the Beijing Olympic sacred flame in Daqing city, the second leg of the torch relay in China's northernmost Heilongjiang province.
As an important base of petroleum and petrochemistry of the country, Daqing has produced more than 2 billion tons of crude oil since 1959.
Wang Qimin, leading a research crew for over 40 years, has been commended as a model of "iron man" spirit, the core value at Daqing oil-field.
"Iron man" was the nickname of Wang Jinxi, a well-known oil worker in China who devoted himself to oil exploitation after the Daqing oil-field was discovered in the late 1950s.
The "iron man" spirit, to start from scratch and work hard, has been encouraging Wang Qimin to engage in scientific research for oil exploration since he began to work at the Daqing oil-field in 1961.
"Long-term development of Daqing requires us to attach importance to science and technology," he said.
To pump up oil from scattered reservoirs with low accumulation is often believed as a difficult technology in oil exploitation in the world.
Wang, with his pioneering team, researched over 1,500 oil wells, experimented in 45 of them, and provided valuable data for developing scattered oil reservoirs on a large scale, which brought him national fame.
Recently, Daqing has proposed a plan to keep its oil production at 40 million tons per year in the next ten years.
"Only depending on scientific technology can we achieve the goal," said Wang, since it has become part of the "iron man" spirit at Daqing nowadays.
As a torchbearer of the sacred flame, Wang believed that science and technology will not only promote development in Daqing, but also make the Beijing Olympic Games one of the best in history.
"We'll pass the torch of science on and on," he said.
Sponsored by China Mining Association (CMA)
