Daqing Oilfield Campaign and "Iron Man" Wang Jinxi

In New China's early years, China's oil industry was extremely backward, and some Western scholars asserted that China was "oil-poor." The geologist Li Siguang and others, relying on the theory of continental oil generation, held that the Songliao Plain in the Northeast offered good prospects. In September 1959 the third base well in the Songliao Basin struck commercial oil flow, discovering a major field named the Daqing Oilfield. In early 1960 the Party Central Committee decided to concentrate forces for a major oil campaign at Daqing, drawing tens of thousands of people from across the country. It was a time of economic hardship, and Daqing, on open wilderness with bitter winters, offered extremely harsh conditions, but "where there are conditions we go forward, and where there are none we create them and go forward." Wang Jinxi (1923–1970), leader of Drilling Team 1205, came to Daqing from the Yumen Oilfield. With no crane when the rig arrived, the team hauled it to the well site by hand and on their shoulders; when drilling began and water was short, they broke the ice to fetch water and carried it in basins to keep the drilling going. When a blowout occurred, Wang jumped into the mud pit despite his injured leg and stirred the mud with his body to bring it under control. He declared, "I would rather live twenty years less than fail to take this great oilfield," and people called him "Iron Man." After over three years of hard work the Daqing Oilfield was built and went into production. At the end of 1963 Zhou Enlai announced at the National People's Congress that China's oil needs were basically self-supplied. In 1964 Mao Zedong issued the call "In industry, learn from Daqing." The Daqing spirit of "patriotism, pioneering, realism and dedication" and the "Iron Man spirit" became a precious spiritual asset of the Chinese nation.