18 | Thursday, May 6, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | DAILY LIFE MARATHON MAN

Age is no barrier for athlete who seems to defy nature as he runs in one event after another, Li Yingxue reports.

nspiration can take many forms — great endeavors, art­ works and scientific discov­ eries. Marathon runners, Iespecially those who seem to defy the normal laws of physics, can also be included in this group, as was seen at the 2021 Xiamen Mar­ athon. The event kicked off at 7 am on April 10. One inspirational My greatest competitor in particular caught happiness the public’s attention among the tens of thousands of runners. He comes from even had a sign on his back stating running. If one “81 years old from Xiamen, Fujian province, Liu Yongren has fin­ day I can’t finish ished 109 full marathons and 167 a full marathon, I half­marathons”. After hitting the finish line a can go after a very credible five or so hours later, half­marathon. Liu finished his 110th full mara­ thon. For the past six decades, run­ Liu (center) attends a half­marathon in Xiamen, Fujian province, in And even if one ning has been part of his life and 2020. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY day I cannot he plans to continue until he hits the 100­year mark. finish 10 “My greatest happiness comes ble run of 110 marathons. mittee of the Xiamen marathon, kilometers, I’ll do from running. If one day I can’t “For my first marathon, I got leg by the end of 2020, 857 runners 5 kilometers.” finish a full marathon, I can go aft­ cramp at about 28 kilometers, and had been given numbers. er a half­marathon. And even if I walked for around 12 kilometers. Each runner needs to submit Liu Yongren, one day I cannot finish 10 kilome­ At the end, I heard the audience online evidence of competing in marathon enthusiast ters, I’ll do 5 kilometers,” he says. cheering me toward the finish the marathons, Liu Dong says. Born in 1940, Liu picked up the line, so I started to run again,” Liu “There are eight people who habit of running at the age of 13, recalls. qualified in 2013 and 19 in 2014 when his grandmother fell ill and “It took me nearly 5 hours to fin­ and the number is growing each Liu Yongren, 81, with his he had to run a dozen kilometers ish my first full marathon,” he year,” Liu Dong says. “They can permanent race number, to the village to find a doctor. adds. automatically earn the qualifica­ 799, takes part in the 2021 “The next day I woke up, sur­ He was, then, a sprightly 63. tion to run the Xiamen marathon Xiamen Marathon in prisingly, not exhausted but His race number for this year’s for free, and there are special ser­ Xiamen, Fujian province, refreshed,” Liu recalls. Xiamen marathon was 799 — he vices for them during the race.” on April 10. He started to practice running picked the number as his perma­ Liu Yongren says in 2008 he ran PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY at a nearby stadium and took part nent one in 2014 when he finished the marathon but didn’t finish in the city’s 5,000 and 10,000­me­ the marathon for the 10th time. because he had to catch a flight to ter race for several years. The marathon was launched in Beijing for an event related to the He worked as a porter at the sea­ 2003, and Liu has never missed Beijing Olympics. That’s why he is front pier and had to haul heavy any edition. The race organizers qualified to have a permanent goods from ships to the ware­ honored those who completed 10 number after 11 years. end. Sometimes, giving up is a He has visited around 20 high or start their own businesses and house back and forth before he full marathons with permanent He says to maintain a long run­ kind of victory,” he says. schools in Xiamen to give speech­ share with me their progress in retired in 2000. race numbers. ning career, one has to know when Liu Yongren says he would give es to the students about his under­ life. I’m glad my stories can inspire Three years later, he ran his According to Liu Dong, who is to give up. up a marathon once he feels he is standing of the spirit of the them,” he says. first full marathon in his home­ responsible for processing the “Besides my finishing full and totally exhausted. marathon in the past decade. town — the inaugural Xiamen applications of the permanent half­marathons, there are several He says he likes to share his run­ “Some students still keep in Contact the writer at marathon. This led to an incredi­ numbers at the organizing com­ times that I didn’t make it to the ning stories with young people. touch with me as they go to college [email protected] Coral rescue work gathers pace on Weizhou Island

NANNING — As a strong gust of When broken coral rolls around Over the past seven years, the wind hit the Beibu Gulf in the and gets buried in the sand, it soon team has placed more than 100 arti­ , Huang Wen and dies. But coral pieces can still be ficial reefs under the sea to act as other “coral sitters” waited anxious­ saved if they are fastened back onto coral nurseries. Strains of coral cov­ ly for the sea to calm. either natural reefs or artificial ering over 2,000 square meters of The team composed of research­ reefs placed on the seafloor. sea area have been rescued. Left: A staff member cleans a room in a hotel in Kangping village, Baota district of Yan’an, ers from a coral reef research center “The more days that pass, the less Huang spends about a quarter of province. LIU XIAO / XINHUA Right: Tourists have their photos taken in Liangjiahe village, a popular in University, South Chi­ chance they have of survival,” a year on the island. Inspired by his destination in , Yan’an. ZHANG BOWEN / XINHUA na’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous Huang says. “Some pieces of coral work, Huang’s 3­year­old and region, and local diving instructors, may need to be repaired in our lab­ 5­year­old daughters enjoy playing needed to get in the water as soon oratory, instead of being fastened on the beach as well, retrieving cor­ as possible since the coral reefs had directly back onto reefs.” al remains washed ashore by sea taken a beating. Coral reef, known as the under­ waves. Cave dwellings help tourists “The undersea coral reefs have water Great Wall, protects the coast According to official data, the cov­ been protecting us, as well as the by cushioning the intensity of sea erage rate of living corals in Weizhou island by blunting the storm’s waves. According to figures, the Island’s marine ranch has dropped destructive power,” says Huang, 33, survival of about one­third of the from some 80 percent to 8 percent sample revolutionary spirit a researcher on coral reefs with the world’s fish species relies on coral over the past 30 years. Apart from center. “Now it’s our turn to protect reefs. the damage caused by typhoons and them.” As someone who majored in surges, global warming is another XI’AN — “Cave houses” have tion in the 1930s. and can offer shelter for at least 300 China observed Earth Day on aquaculture, Huang knew better cause of the death of corals. become a top choice for tourists in Edgar depicted a Red Army uni­ more years,” says Xu. April 22. Scientists have estimated than others about the importance “Each strain of coral is as pre­ Yan’an, a former revolutionary base versity that “was probably the Since 2018, vacant in the vil­ that coral reefs on the planet could of coral reefs for marine biodiversi­ cious as any other lives on Earth so of the Communist Party of China. world’s only seat of ‘higher learning’ lage have been gathered under uni­ be extinct by 2100. ty, a major reason for him to work they deserve a better living environ­ “In addition to their distinctive whose classrooms were bombproof fied management. Distinctive cave While global warming, typhoons on coral protection. ment and being treated with digni­ appearance, the facilities inside are caves, with chairs and desks of stone hotels offer a rare experience for and human activities such as fish­ After acquiring his doctorate ty as living organisms,” Huang says. modern. I can take a hot bath and and brick, and blackboards and tourists eager to get a taste of the tra­ ery and industrial pollution have from the Institute of Oceanology, Zheng Tingyu, another team have access to the internet,” says walls of limestone and clay”. ditional dwellings and reminisce on largely threatened the existence of Chinese Academy of Sciences, member, says to avoid touching the tourist Cheng Shangzhi. In the process of the Chinese revo­ the CPC’s history. coral reefs, Huang and other team Huang joined the coral reef corals, they could not stand on the A cave house, or yaodong, is a lution, Yan’an cave dwellings played Higher­quality and moisture­re­ members are racing against time research center of Guangxi Univer­ seafloor, but stayed suspended in form of dwelling com­ an important role. One night in 1935, sistant materials, modern furniture, for their rescue on Weizhou Island sity in 2015, one year after the cen­ water while doing the rescue work. mon on the Plateau in north­ exhausted Red Army soldiers arrived electric appliances, spacious rooms of the Beibu Gulf. ter was established. With their efforts, more than ern China. Taking advantage of in Wuqi county in Yan’an. Mao Ze­ with plenty of daylight, and 10,000 strains of coral pulled thick loess layers and favorable dong spent the night in the cave of improvements to the natural envi­ through the toughest time last year landforms, the sturdy and durable local villager Zhang Ruisheng. ronment brought by afforestation and survived. Many once broken yaodong cave houses are mostly “Chairman Mao arrived at my mean cave hotels are not a painful strains have grown from 10 to 30 carved into hillsides. Such houses do house at around 7 or 8 in the even­ experience for tourists recalling centimeters. not take up valuable arable land and ing. My family prepared mutton and tough revolutionary days. The ecological benefits are visi­ are warm in the winter and cool in buckwheat noodles. The chairman Each household in the village ble. Since coral provides marine the summer. praised my father, said he did a good earns an annual average income of organisms with places to rest, hide, Earthy caves were once consid­ job in cooking,” says Zhang. nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,540) by rent­ live and breed, the number of fish ered a symbol of poverty. But in 2019, Under the arched roof, Mao and ing their vacant caves to tourism in the area with artificial reefs Yan’an put an end to absolute pover­ his comrades reorganized the Red cooperatives. Villagers have become underneath is several times higher ty. Although China is undergoing Army, beginning a 14­year­long revo­ service providers, taking on jobs than that of neighboring areas earthshaking changes, cave dwell­ lution that led to the founding of the such as tour guide, housekeeper and without reefs. ings — one of the earliest dwelling People’s Republic of China in 1949. store owner. has fostered types of human beings — are still Xu Junfu has been living in caves Despite the COVID­19 pandemic, more than 70 postgraduates found all over the . all his life in Kangping village, locat­ the per capita annual income of vil­ engaged in coral reef protection. US journalist wrote ed in the Fengzhuang township of lagers in Kangping exceeded 17,000 Huang, who is now also a postgrad­ about cave dwellings when he first Yan’an’s Baota district. yuan last year, higher than the level uate supervisor, says he is glad to see visited Yan’an in 1936. He penned “Primitive earthy caves were seen in 2019, according to the local young students join them in protect­ the classic Red Star Over China, humid and would easily tumble government. Huang Wen (front, third from left), a coral researcher from Guangxi ing the coral. which gave a rare, detailed and bril­ down. But the stone cave in which University, talks to diving instructors in Weizhou Island about reef liant account of the Chinese revolu­ I’m staying today is safe and sturdy, XINHUA protection on April 8. LIU LINGYI / XINHUA XINHUA