China Daily Global Edition (USA)

Airport worker takes Xi’s report to heart

- By ZHOU WENTING in Shanghai zhouwentin­g@chinadaily.com.cn

Machines are taking over some services at Shanghai Hongqiao Internatio­nal Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airports, such as the ones that allow passengers to scan their documents themselves.

But Wu Na, a security inspector at the airport, has found a way to preserve the human touch when dealing with travelers. For one, she wishes them happy birthday when appropriat­e after checking their birth date.

“People feel delighted when they hear that, especially when they are far from home,” said Wu, 29, who has been on the job for 11 years.

The Shanghai native also has found other ways to provide better service, such as giving away 100-milliliter empty bottles to travelers who had to surrender their larger bottles of liquid due to security rules and folding passengers’ boarding passes after stamping them to keep the ink from staining their fingers.

In April, a security station was named after her to set an example for the 2,200 security inspectors at the airport.

“Our job may seem routine, but the public entrusts us with the heavy burden of guaranteei­ng their personal safety. So, first, we must have excellent skills,” Wu said.

Articles forbidden on flights may show up as different colors and shapes in the X-ray machine if placed at different angles. To remember such fine difference­s, she practiced constantly to earn her senior profession­al certificat­e.

Wu, honored as a national model worker three years ago, the youngest recipient of the honor that year, became a delegate to the Communist Party of China’s 19th National Congress, the country’s most important political meeting in five years, in October.

Since returning, she has made 31 visits to places like civil aviation institutio­ns, communitie­s and high schools, to convey the spirit of the congress.

The report to the congress of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, “is not distant from our everyday lives. Instead, we are practicing the report when fulfilling our jobs every single day,” she said.

“The young students are lucky because they are going to be in their robust years when the country fulfills the task for realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenati­on of the Chinese nation in 2050,” Wu said.

Wu said her most unforgetta­ble moment as a delegate was when Xi said during the report that the Chinese nation will stand rock-firm in the family of nations with a higher-spirited posture.

“I was in the auditorium at the Great Hall of the People and could clearly hear the response from the 2,280 delegates, which lingered in the air long after the initial burst of applause faded out. It was a burst of the true feeling of pride of anticipati­on from our innermost hearts,” Wu said.

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