China News Service, Jilin, March 5th: Title: Jilin's 80-year-old "Foolish Old Man" opened mountains and built roads for 24 years: from stone quarryer to "ladder repairer"

　　China News Service reporter Cang Yan Shi Hongyu

　　Liu Jiang spent 24 years building more than 1,000 stone steps and three small squares.

With one person, a shovel, a crowbar, and a measuring tape, 86-year-old Liu Jiang continues to lay this "stone ladder road."

Liu Jiang, 86, has been building roads and mountains for 24 years.

Photo by Cang Yan

　　During the Waking of Insects season, the snow in the Northeast has not yet melted.

There are still skaters having fun on the ice rink on the Xilin River.

The sun was just right at noon. Liu Jiang walked across the iron bridge and came to the foot of Dongshan Mountain.

　　It had just snowed. Liu Jiang took out a shovel from the stone house halfway up the mountain and cleared the snow on the stone steps.

　　Dongshan belongs to Zhangguangcai Ridge Yumai and is located in Shangying Town, Shulan City, Jilin Province.

Most residents in the town like to go to Dongshan for walks and exercise.

　　Liu Jiang has lived in the town for more than 60 years. He was originally a stonemason in a local state-owned quarry, engaged in gravel and stone carving.

Liu Jiang has been working with rocks all his life.

After retiring from the quarry, Liu Jiang, like most people in the town, often went for walks in Dongshan.

At that time, the mountain road was rugged, steep and difficult to navigate.

Liu Jiang often goes for walks on Dongshan Mountain.

Photo by Cang Yan

　　In order to facilitate residents' recreation, Liu Jiang decided to build a mountain road.

In 2000, Liu Jiang began preparations for road construction.

He first cleared the weeds on both sides of the mountain road and widened the original dirt road.

Then, he began to collect stones suitable for stone steps, and moved the rocks piece by piece to both sides of the mountain road with a crowbar, and began to lay stone steps.

　　Liu Jiang spent a lot of time transporting hundreds of kilograms of stones to the top of the mountain.

With many years of experience as a stonemason, he used crowbars and tow ropes to "roll the stone up the mountain."

He used the most primitive tools to cut stones and trim stone steps. Each stone step is about 60 centimeters long, smooth and beautiful.

　　24 years have passed, the road in Liujiang is getting longer and longer, and more and more people are walking on this mountain road.

Sometimes, on steep hillsides, he could only lay a few meters a day.

"This road was built to make it more convenient for pedestrians walking from here."

　　Nowadays, residents of the town like to go to Dongshan for leisure and entertainment, and it has become a park.

In order to facilitate residents' entertainment, Liu Jiang also built three small squares on both sides of the mountain road.

The fitness equipment in the small square was also built by Liu Jiang.

Liu Jiang goes to Dongshan every day to inspect the "stone steps road".

Photo by Cang Yan

　　Before dawn broke in the sky, Liu Jiang set off from home again.

The "Stone Step Road" has been built to the top of the mountain. He needs to repair the stone steps and expand the small square next to the road.

　　"I could move mountains when I was young." On the way up the mountain, Liu Jiang recalled the past with a smile and lamented that his physical strength was not as good as before.

His road construction plan is still going on, "The road in the back mountain has not been repaired yet." (End)