On the eve of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, Lin Zhou, deputy mayor of Yingxiu Town, unexpectedly got the chance to start over. With only 129 days to prepare, he made a resolute decision: before disaster struck, he would build a complete disaster-prevention system for his hometown from scratch.
With no funding, he made trip after trip to businesses, patiently talking them around. With no policy support, he found compliant ways to adapt and proceeded one step at a time. With no technical expertise, he taught himself circuitry and made the adjustments by hand. When residents didn’t understand, he went door to door to explain. From early-warning systems to emergency plans, from town-wide drills to hazard mitigation, from public education to standardized response, six major projects moved forward in tandem. Before the ruins came, he had built an invisible line of defense for people’s lives.
On the day of the earthquake, more than eighty percent of Yingxiu Town’s buildings collapsed, yet the death toll fell from an estimated three thousand or more to just forty-seven. The miracle was no matter of luck. It came from a grassroots disaster-prevention system that could be replicated and expanded.
But this was only the beginning. From Yingxiu to Wenchuan, from Sichuan to the entire country, Lin Zhou used hard work and a sense of responsibility to build a Great Wall of disaster prevention across China, one step at a time.
Given a second life, he sought neither personal fame nor glory. He wanted only to protect his loved ones and safeguard the people. Through his actions, he proved that one person, one system, and a heart devoted to the country and its people could change the fate of hundreds of millions.
