(Ecns.cn)--For He Zhaosheng, moving out of his hometown in Henan is neither heartrending nor hard, since the 75-year-old has spent most of his life relocating to make way for the country's water conservancy projects, including the water reservoir and South-to-North Water Diversion Project.
"This is all for the cause of our country," said He. "Individual interests should be subordinate to national ones."
He and his family moved to Qinghai Province in 1956 and went back to their hometown a couple of years later. However, soon they were resettled in Jingmen, Hubei Province, but returned to their hometown again after a short period. Now, they are going to move out for the third time to a town about 500 kilometers away.
Move to Qinghai
From years of wrinkles and his tottering steps, people can easily tell he has experienced many vicissitudes in life.
More than half a century ago, He was still a hot-blooded young guy, living beside the Danjiang River in Zhechuan Township, Nanyang, Henan Province, which later turned to be the seed of his constant relocations.
In 1953, He, in his 20s, joined other young guys of his village in moving to Qinghai Province to, according to the local government, "assist the West region."
Expecting that he might be able to display his talents in a new environment while getting paid by the government, He, together with his wife, started a long journey to Qinghai in 1959.
That was a hard trip, which took He and his fellow villagers one day on foot to get to the bus station and several other days to the destination by truck.
However, when they arrived there, He suddenly found that they were actually thought of by the locals as new immigrants instead of support staff.
As a result, since 1959 a total of 8,000 young men, together with more than 10,000 families, moved to Qinghai, a place about 2,000 km away from their hometown.
He realized later that the real reason for the relocation was to make way for a dam on the Danjiang River, which would raise the water level by 170 meters. Many villages nearby would be submerged.
"This came to my knowledge years later," He recalled.
Going home
He led a relatively good life in his new home at the very beginning. He was appointed as group head, leading his fellow-villagers to work in a farm.
Yet, He still missed his hometown, where he could reap two harvests per year due to the warm weather. Whereas, Qinghai was cold and he could only reap one per year.
"Here, it is in fact no different from my hometown," He had kept comforting himself.
The relatively good times did not last long. The life of the immigrants was getting harder and harder due to the poor farmland and dry weather. Within just one year, about 5,000 of them died abnormally. Some even had tried to flee back home, but died on the way.
However, just before the struggle became more acute, the provincial government asked He and his fellows to move back to Henan.
"This must be an order from the central government," speculated He, who even today had no idea what had happened to the dam when he was in Qinghai.
In fact, according to reporters of the China Youth Daily, the dam and other water projects on the Danjiang River were suspended due to quality issues.
Excited, yet a little worried, He returned to his home in 1962, three years after he left, only to find his house was still there, but the furniture was already gone.
