Tian Demei at work.

It was a rotor that was 16.198 meters in diameter and 3.826 meters in height, with a hoisting weight of 2,100 tonnes. When installing the water-turbine generator set for the Baihetan Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River, the upper section of the Yangtze River in southwest China, it was well known that the hardest part of the job would be hoisting this massive rotor of the set's first unit into a pit with only 51 mm of spacing available at the edge. Back then, no one believed that an overhead crane operator could complete the task.

To everyone's surprise, a post-90s girl named Tian Demei made it with a great success.

Dedication

Tian, a veteran overhead crane operator boasting 16 years of work experience, was the head of the overhead crane operator team of the Baihetan mechanical and electrical installation project undertaken by the PowerChina Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 4 Co., Ltd. At the ceremony of 2022's Great National Craftsmen Forum which opened on the evening of February 28, 2023, this 33-year-old lady was the only woman out of the 10 prize winners.