Nantong report A5Friday, May 20, 2016

The Nantong railway station begins to offer high-speed train services on Sunday. XU CONGJUN / FOR CHINA DAILY

A 268.3-kilometer high-speed railway linking Nantong, Jiangsu prov-ince, and the provin-

cial capital Nanjing went into operation on May 15, marking Nantong joining the national high-speed railway network.

It takes about two hours and 20 minutes to go to Nanjing on the new line, passing the sta-tions of Hai’an, Taizhou and Yangzhou. The designed speed for the railway is 200 km/h.

In addition to the regular Nantong-Nanjing high-speed service, another 12 pairs of reg-ular high-speed services now run each day between Nantong and other major cities, such as Chongqing and Wuhan.

The Nantong railway admin-istrative department estimates the city’s annual railway pas-senger transport capacity will rocket from 6 million trips to 32 million.

The overall investment on the high-speed railway between Nanjing and Nantong is about 12.7 billion yuan ($1.95 billion).

Experts said the railway is of vital importance in bridging the development gap between the north of Jiangsu province and the rest of the Yangtze River Delta, as Nantong is located in the center of the province.

Lu Zhipeng, Nantong Party

chief, said: “By entering the high-speed railway era, Nantong will have a new driving force to boost its economic rise.

“Nantong takes an impor-tant step forward to transform from nowhere to somewhere on China’s high-speed railway map,” he said.

According to Jiangsu’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Nan-tong will have a new 107-km electrified freight railway by 2018 connecting its urban area with Qidong, a county-level city under the administration of Nantong that is located in the north of the Yangtze River mouth. Nantong will also be connected with Shanghai through a 137-km new high-speed railway and is planned to become a regional railway transport hub by 2020.

Lu is confident that the fast high-speed railway will better help Nantong integrate into the economic map in the Yangtze River Delta that centers on Shanghai.

Feng Jun, who researches the Yangtze River Economic Belt at Nantong University, said: “The high-speed railway network around Nantong will promote flows of production factors and economic resources, especially human resources.

“Nantong will also have a

much bigger freight transport capacity,” Feng said.

It is estimated that after the electrification of the Nantong-Qidong freight railway in 2018, the new line will be able to han-dle about 40 million metric tons of freight each year.

The railway’s current annual handling capacity is 6 million tons.

“The improvement of Nan-tong’s railway infrastructure will boost the development of its port-centered industry, logis-tics and port construction, and promote industry relocation in the region,” Feng said.

Tourism is the immediate beneficiary of the high-speed railway between Nantong and Nanjing.

Dai Ping, Nantong tourism bureau director, said: “The high-speed railway is like a pearl necklace integrating the tourist spots along it in Nanjing, Tai-zhou, Yangzhou and Nantong.

“The cities will become tour-ist sources and destinations for each other. More importantly, the convenient transport will attract more visitors from the rest of China.”

According to statistics from Ctrip, an online tourism service provider in China, about 50 per-cent of the visitors to Nantong in the past three years came from Shanghai, 40 percent from the rest of Jiangsu, 4 percent from neighboring Zhejiang province and 3 percent from Anhui prov-ince. Ctrip predicts Nantong will

receive more tourists from Cen-tral and North China.

A Nantong resident sur-named Li is planning a two-day trip to Nanjing on the high-speed train.

“I can visit Fuzi Temple and the Qinhuai River in Nanjing on the first day; go shopping in Xinjiekou, downtown Nanjing, the next morning; and come back in the afternoon,” she said. “The high-speed train is com-fortable, fast and safe, and is a good choice for senior citizens and children.”

Local travel agencies are also planning new products for visitors from other cities. Xu Bin, manager of China Com-fort Travel Agency’s Nantong branch, said: “We are contacting some partners in Hubei prov-ince to promote Nantong.”

Zhang Shiming, manager of Degao Travel Agency, said: “Nanjing residents will have a new route via Nantong to Disneyland in Shanghai in the future. They can stay overnight in Nantong.

“The old route needs to go through Suzhou to Shanghai’s urban areas, where the traffic congestion is a big headache maker.”

Contact the writers through liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

High-speed rail joins Nantong to national network

New train service expected to drive city’s economic rise, Li Yang, Zhou Chaohui and Li Bo report.

By Ding Congrongand Li Bo

Five contestants from Nan-tong in East China’s Jiangsu province, one of whom is disabled, joined more than 500 athletes from around the country to compete in the Tai-zhou ASTC Triathlon Asian Cup on May 8.

Triathlons comprise three disciplines: a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-km bike ride and 10-km run. All three disci-plines are competed succes-sively. In the United States, more than 480,000 people participate in triathlon events annually and more than 4,400 separate races are held each year.

The Taizhou event was Wang Naixin’s triathlon debut and he finished a creditable eighth in the 35-39 age group. Despite his encouraging per-formance, Wang, 39, said he was hampered by a combina-tion of nerves and inexperi-ence.

“I was extremely nervous during the swim and per-formed the worst among the athletes who finished in the top eight in my age group,” Wang said. “In addition, I wasted about two minutes during the bike transition because of my inexperience.”

Wang was able to claw back some time during the bike ride, however, as he is a strong cyclist.

“Overall, I was satisfied with my performance and I gained valuable experience,” he said. “I will work on my weaker events so that I perform bet-ter in future events.”

Xu Zhaoliang and Tang Hao are two young men from a cycling team in Nantong, but their triathlon performances differed greatly.

Both men competed in the half triathlon event, which comprises a 0.75-km swim, 20-km bike ride and 5-km run. Xu won the 18-29 age group title by completing the three disciplines in a time of 1 hr, 7 min, more than three minutes faster than the run-ner-up. Tang said he was badly affected by the cold water dur-ing the swim and even swal-lowed some water.

Zhu Chengwu, Xu and Tang’s coach, who also coached three other athletes at the event, said he was pleased by their performance since it was their first triathlon. He added that he is thinking about persuading more ath-letes from the cycling team to switch to triathlon.

Gu Jian, 46, said he enjoyed competing in the event. “I swam across the Qiongzhou Strait on May 8 in 2014,” said Gu, who also took part in the Tour of Chongming Island International Cycling Race last year. “Today I succeeded in finishing a triathlon, which marks another milestone in my sports career.”

Gu finished 28th among the 38 participants in the 45-49 age category. Four participants in the age category failed to finish the event.

Gu said that Bao Hanming, a disabled athlete from Nan-tong who completed the tri-athlon, deserves more respect.

Bao, 36, who won a gold medal in the individual time trial in cycling at the sixth National Games for the Dis-abled in 2003, was a torch-bearer for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Bao lost his lower right arm when he was 8 years old.

He finished the triathlon in 3 hr, 15 min, ranking 41st among 49 contestants and receiving enthusiastic sup-port from both spectators and competitors.

“Although I have partici-pated in triathlons before, this was the best one yet because of the camaraderie between the competitors and support from the crowd,” Bao said.

The five Nantong athletes registered with the Taizhou Triathlon Association in order to participate in the event because Nantong has not yet established such an organiza-tion.

“We will contact as many tri-athlon enthusiasts in Nantong as possible and discuss forming an association so that we can build a strong team and com-pete for the city,” Gu said.

Contact the writers through dingcongrong@ chinadaily.com.cn

Triathletes fight for city pride in prestigious event

By Li Jingand Feng Qirong

Nursing is a profession domi-nated by women, a tendency that holds true at Nantong’s First People’s Hospital, where there are seven male nurses out of more than 800.

“These male nurses are our treasures,” said Liu Ying, head nurse of the hospital’s emergen-cy department.

Among the seven, Li Qing is the youngest. Born in 1991, Li graduated from a nursing school in 2014 and has been working with the emergency department since that time.

His first challenge came only months after his hiring.

“The patient was a young adult who was having a cardiac arrest. We instantly started car-dio-pulmonary resuscitation,” Li recalled.

“CPR usually requires 150 compressions in five cycles within two minutes and nurses in our department take turns. But as the patient’s CPR went on, most of the nurses were overcome with exhaustion — the female nurses were unable to sustain their strength. I then volunteered to do double time each turn.”

He continued the CPR for five minutes each turn, for more than 700 compressions. After an incredible 67 minutes, Li, drenched in sweat, managed to

save the patient’s life.He said an advantage for male

nurses is their physical strength.Zhang Liang is also a male

nurse at the hospital’s emer-gency department. In 2014, he was one of many emergency responders at a Kunshan fac-tory in Jiangsu province after a blast killed dozens and injured more than 100.

The Nantong hospital received several seriously wounded victims.

“Most were in critical condi-tion,” Zhang said. “It was the most challenging time for us and also gave us a good lesson in emergency treatment.”

In June, Zhang will be the city’s first certificated male

emergency nurse specialist. Zhang’s colleague Wang Li

said her department usually treats patients who have been in major accidents.

“The victims of major acci-dents often look bloody and terrified. Although we are pro-fessional, there is a tendency to slightly panic,” she said.

She recalled a patient whose feet were crushed by a road roller.

“It was so terrifying that I didn’t dare take a glance. Zhang was very calm and dealt with it meticulously,” she said.

Male nurse Lu Xiaoyong, who works in the intensive care unit, does double duty as the ICU’s maintenance man, tuning

the department’s hemofiltration apparatus, respiratory equip-ment to its injection pumps.

“It is because of my interest in machinery,” he said. “I like studying equipment. They are very delicate and expensive.”

It’s no secret that nursing is loaded with odds and ends. These routines have made these men careful and cautious.

ICU male nurses Zuo Daye and Guan Haiyang said patients in the ICU are mostly bedrid-den and vulnerable to bacteria.

“Infection control is our top priority and I make a clear, full record of patients’ conditions to avoid cross infection,” Zuo said.

Turning patients over in bed is another daily work at ICU.

“Patients need to be turned every two hours and we are careful with each motion,” Guan said.

Holidays are the busiest time for nurses and the seven are usually given the hardest work.

“We seldom spend time with our families during the holidays. We have to be on call around the clock,” Guan said.

Though Guan and Lu are married to nurses within the hospital, they said they are too busy to see their wives once a week.

“But the work enables us to understand each other better,” Guan said.

For their hard work, the male nurses have received

accolades. Zhang and Guan recently received a second-place award in the hospital’s cardiopulmonary resuscita-tion competition.

A member of the judging panel remarked after the com-petition that “we never thought these male nurses would do such a good job”.

“These male nurses are com-petent and are also thoughtful and considerate of their female colleagues. We hope to have more male nurses in the future,” Liu said.

Since 2010, none of the male nurses have quit the hospital.

Contact the writers through lijing2009@chinadaily.com.cn

In a profession dominated by women, seven male nurses show their worth

Bao Hanming, a disabled athlete from Nantong, in the bike stage at the Taizhou ASTC Triathlon Asian Cup.LI BO / FOR CHINA DAILY

With easier access to high-speed train services, more Nantong residents choose to travel by rail. XU CONGJUN / FOR CHINA DAILY