Xie Shengdong: A Skilled Caretaker of the Tobacco Variety Display Garden

 Introduction: Xie Shengdong, an excellent gardener. In the tobacco variety display garden in Huangjing Village, Jinhua Town, Fenggang County, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, people often see a figure—Xie Shengdong.

  According to the Heating Not Burning Information Network: In the tobacco variety display garden in Huangjing Village, Jinhua Town, Fenggang County, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, people often see a figure: wearing a gray-white straw hat, dressed in slightly yellowed woolen shorts, holding a measuring tape in one hand and a notebook and a compact camera in the other, he moves tirelessly through the "sea of tobacco" in the 200-acre display garden. His ride is a somewhat "thin" electric bike, which looks quite uncoordinated with his tall stature. With dark skin and a hearty smile, it’s hard to imagine that this is a young man just over 30 years old with a high education. This seemingly unremarkable person is named Xie Shengdong, a member of the Communist Party, currently a scientific researcher at the Breeding Engineering Technology Center of the Guizhou Tobacco Research Institute, mainly engaged in tobacco variety research work.   "Variety is fundamental to promoting the development of tobacco leaf production and ensuring the effective supply of high-quality raw materials. This year, I am responsible for the construction of the variety display garden, and I will not disappoint expectations; I will do my utmost to get this job done," he promised upon arriving in Fenggang, and he has indeed done so.   The tobacco variety display garden is located in Huangjing Village, Jinhua Town, Fenggang County, Zunyi City, covering an area of over 240 acres, involving nearly 200 domestic and foreign tobacco varieties, with a large amount of material data and extensive area. This is a test garden, an exploratory garden, and an innovative garden. After its completion, it has welcomed more than 20 batches of research and guidance from experts and leaders from various levels, including the Shanghai Tobacco Group, Yunnan Green Ecological Tobacco Leaf Development Research Association, Guizhou Provincial Bureau, Tobacco Research Institute, and municipal bureaus, all receiving unanimous praise.   "Having worked in tobacco for so many years, seeing the Fenggang Tobacco Variety Display Garden still gave me a refreshing feeling," said Cheng Yingxuan, former Vice Governor of Yunnan Province and Executive Vice President of the Yunnan Green Ecological Tobacco Leaf Development Research Association, during his visit to Fenggang County, Guizhou Province on July 3.   On July 9, Sun Ping, Deputy Inspector of Shanghai Tobacco Group Co., Ltd., happily commented after viewing the variety display: "Cultivating high-quality flue-cured tobacco varieties is key to improving raw material quality. Conventional flue-cured tobacco breeding methods take too long and are relatively blind. The approach of the Fenggang Tobacco Variety Display Garden is excellent, providing a good start for our industrial manufacturers' cigarette quality improvement strategy..."   Of course, these achievements are inseparable from the hard work of "gardener" Xie Shengdong. In April of this year, he just arrived in Fenggang, and to facilitate his work, he bravely chose to live with local farmers and even transported his electric motorcycle from Guiyang to Fenggang. Over the past six months, he has not been negligent in any aspect, from planning the display garden's experimental plots, layout of tobacco cultivation fields, sowing and seedling management, to the current stage of drying and sampling.   Due to work connections, I observed and recorded a day in his life...   On August 4, 2014, Monday, sunny.   At 6:22 AM, he began to wake up and wash up, cooking a bowl of noodles in his simple accommodation.   At 6:49 AM, he rode out, starting his electric bike.   At 7:56 AM, he appeared in the tobacco variety display garden, starting his busy day according to the work plan.   The first task was to observe the variety characteristics and record agronomic traits. He took out his measuring tape and began measuring plant height, leaf length, leaf width, and other agronomic traits. Since there are many varieties and a large scale in the display garden, this task took about three and a half hours. By this time, the sun had begun to show its power, and Xie Shengdong was already sweating profusely, his gray-white shirt soaked and showing a white ring. It was around 11:32 AM when, at my request, he packed up his notebook and tools, washed his face in a small ditch in the field, and prepared to return for lunch.   By the time he got back to his accommodation, it was nearly noon. The glaring sunlight made him feel a bit dizzy. He said, "I’m not good at cooking and it wastes time, so I’ll treat you to a simple meal at a restaurant. After lunch, I still need to take photos, and the samples in the drying room can come down this afternoon..."   After a short rest following lunch, around 1:20 PM, we headed back to the variety display garden, where he began photographing the tobacco plants. A somewhat old compact camera in his hand kept clicking as he took nearly a thousand reference photos in the 200-acre display garden. He treasures this first-hand data as a treasure. While he was busy taking photos, a phone call came in, and he quickly stopped his work to answer the call. It was around 2:45 PM, and he told me the call was from a drying technician notifying him that the samples of tobacco leaves in a nearby drying room were ready to come down.   At 2:55 PM, we arrived at the nearby drying room area, where a hired worker was carrying a bundle of tobacco leaves out. Looking at the golden tobacco leaves, a smile finally appeared on his honest face, as if to say to himself, "Everything I’ve done is worth it..."   After recording the sample data, he returned to his residence around 7 PM. In his simple accommodation, he told me that due to the diverse nature of his work, he basically has no weekends or holidays. Although the work is a bit hard, seeing the results of his efforts makes him feel quite happy. This is Xie Shengdong, an honest and lovely, ordinary tobacco worker, who is rooted at the grassroots level, firmly committed to his professional responsibilities, and wholeheartedly dedicates his youth and sweat to the development of the tobacco industry.