As a “mountain guard”, he has protected this land for 39 years.

 

 

Located at the junction of Yizhang County, Zixing City and Suxian District, Shizikou Mountain is the second highest peak in Chenzhou City with an altitude of 1,913.8 meters. It belongs to the ninth joint defense area for forest protection and fire prevention in Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces.

 

It is the best protected oasis in the junction, with 350,000 mu (about 23,333 hectares) of virgin forests, 70,000 mu (about 4,667 hectares) of grassy hills, and a considerable variety and quantity of rare animal and plant resources.

 

Liu Zhenmao has led a team to garrison Shizikou Mountain since 1983. The toughest problem was housing. “It is extremely difficult to build a house in a col with an altitude of more than 1,600 meters. There are all steep narrow paths rather than roads. Cement, lime, river sand and bricks were all carried up to the mountain by shoulder little by little”, he recalled.

 

Other people carried the building materials once a day, but he did it twice. After hard work for half a year, the guard post was finally completed. Liu Zhenmao said happily,

 

“In addition to handling my own work off the mountain, I stay on the mountain for the rest of the time, without weekends or holidays. Even if I go down the mountain to buy daily necessities, I will go back on the same day.”

 

 

 

Since he moved to the mountain in 1993, he hasn’t spent a Spring Festival at home. Even though his youngest son got married, he did not go down the mountain.

 

When his old father-in-law passed away, he went down the mountain for one day and hurried back at night. Without electric light and television, he could only listen to the radio and read old newspapers.

 

Though wearing many hats, he did not take a penny of subsidies. He put all his savings of more than 30,000 yuan into building the guard post. 

 

In 1999, Liu Zhenmao began to take a back seat, which allowed him to do less work.But he did not go down the mountain. In 2006, he retired, still refusing to leave.

 

What did he do in the mountain? Liu Zhenmao laughed and shared his daily life as the “mountain king”. “As long as it is not a day with heavy rain, I will go around the mountain in a suit of camouflage uniform with a hatchet and a pair of high-top running shoes. This is my main route of my mountain tour from the Swan Pond in the south, to the main peak of Shizikou in the north and then to the mountain in the southwest.”

 

 

 

Though it doesn’t look too far, it takes a long time to walk uphill and downhill,  with 30 kilometers a day at least. Thatches and bushes taller than people are growing along the paths with twist and turn. My trip over the past 30 odd years is roughly equivalent to 20 times the distance around the earth.

 

In order to save time, he has formed a habit of eating two meals a day. Sometimes, he just takes a few sweet potatoes on him when patrolling the mountain. But he is always so energetic and high-spirited, looking stronger than the yellow muntjac and goats in the mountain. 

 

Touched and inspired by his kindness, devotion and perseverance, the villagers living around the mountain have actively participated in the protection of forests. Liu Zhenmao keeps in touch with the villagers 24 hours a day, with the phone numbers of hundreds of villagers in his notebook.

 

Due to Liu Zhenmao’s perseverance, there has never been a fire in Shizikou Mountain for 39 years.