Wang Jinxi, known as the Chinese "Iron Man", was born to a poor peasant family in Northwest China's Gansu Province in 1923. In his own words, his "life in the old society was a nightmare". He took jobs as a shepherd and a coal carrier before starting work in the Yumen Oilfield in 1938. In 1956, Wang joined the Communist Party of China.

Wang was one of the first-generation oil rig workers after the founding of the People's Republic of China. After China discovered the Daqing Oilfield in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in 1959, Wang led a group of workers from Gansu Province to Daqing the following year.

Under his leadership, Wang and his famous No. 1205 Drilling Team rushed to the bleak grasslands, worked through fatigue and injury in temperatures as low as -30°C before finally striking oil. They even managed to dig the first oil well within 124 hours.

In 1960, the nation was called upon to learn from "Iron Man" Wang Jinxi. He became the poster boy of the working class at that time.

In 1968, Wang was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. He died of cancer in 1970 at the age of 47.

(Illustrated by Lu Lingxing; Produced by Cheng Weidan, Bao Han and Xu Zheqi)