The picture taken on February 21 shows Zhang Ying, the youngest
member of the Chinese peacekeeping medical unit in Lebanon, is all smiles in
front of the tent put up by herself.
Photo by Tian Yuan
On a wide swath of leveled ground inside Lebanon adjoining the Golan
Heights, neatly amassed various building materials that were piled up
mountain-high, while bulldozers and transport vehicles rolling to and fro in
steady streams. In the background, big tents decorated with hanging Chinese red
lanterns and Chinese knots lined up in neat order-what we are talking about here
is no other than the "new home" for the first batch of peacekeeping medical unit
of the Chinese peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.
Xiong Zhongmao, deputy leader of the unit from the General Hospital of the
Chengdu Military Area Command and who is experienced in field operation, said
with a fine sense of humour: "Putting up plank houses might not be a big thing,
and yet, what we are constructing here is a medical center. For that reason,
specifications and requirements should be followed to the letter. However, the
"builders" we have here are mostly medical doctors and nurses who know nothing
about building houses. So, what we do here is to divide the job according to the
doctors professions: engage the physicians of internal medicine in the internal
construction of the houses, the surgeons the external construction, the
orthopedic surgeons the framework, the ophthalmologists the doors and windows
and the gastroenterologists the pipeline installation. In a way, this is one
funny way of giving each person the job he/she excels, isn't it?" He concluded
by laughing heartily at the way he is putting it.
"The Chinese military doctors are really amazing! They can even build
houses themselves," exclaimed the leaders of the Spanish and Finnish
peacekeeping troops at the Class II Hospital Project Coordination Conference of
the East District Command of the UN Peacekeeping Troops in Lebanon.
By Sun Jilian and Tian Yuan
(Feb 25, PLA Daily)