On March 17, 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Jiao Yulu Memorial Hall in Lankao county, Central China's Henan Province, where devoted county official and hero Jiao Yulu (1922-1964) once lived.
At a meeting the next day with local officials, Xi recited the poem "In Memory of Jiao Yulu" he wrote in July 1990 after reading an article headlined "People Yearn for the Return of Jiao Yulu" when he was the Communist Party of China chief of Fuzhou, capital city of East China's Fujian Province.
Xi has always held Jiao in high esteem and regarded him as a role model.
Jiao, Party chief of Lankao county who died at his post, is widely praised for his work in the county combating natural disasters and improving people's livelihoods during the 1960s and is hailed for his tireless spirit and public dedication. In one oft-told story of Jiao, he apparently refused to stay in hospital despite suffering liver cancer and worked on until his death.