Wang Qihong is one of two delegates from Shenzhen City in south China's Guangdong Province.

Wang started her sporting career as an artistic gymnast at the age of eight. It was not until she was 17 that she won her first gold medal in a national competition. Just after this personal triumph she was diagnosed as having cancer of the bone. She had to have her right leg amputated. However she overcame her disability and has gone on to make a significant contribution to Chinese sport. As a coach, Wang has trained many excellent artistic gymnasts for the national team.

It was Wang's experience as a highly trained athlete that helped her pull through the most difficult days of her life. "It is very common for an athlete to continue training and be undergoing treatment for injury at the same time. This fosters a certain tenacity of character and it taught me that I just have to accept reality and then think about how to cope with it," she said.

As a delegate from the world of sport, Wang has been looking forward to exchanging ideas and opinions with other sporting delegates at the National Congress.

In the coming years, many international sports events will be held in China. Considerable efforts will be required on the part of the organizers to ensure they run smoothly. However, Wang says that the same level of effort should also go into encouraging the Chinese public to appreciate the appeal of sporting activities and to take up sports themselves.  

"I think China's sports undertakings will see enormous strides forward in the near future. Today, sports have developed in breadth and many disciplines are involved. I am confident that the 17th Congress will bring a further boost to sport in China."

Meanwhile, Wang is conscious of also being a delegate from the ranks of disabled people. She said that she would be a voice in the congress for the wishes of the disabled and would call for better and more effective policies to provide substantial help for the disabled.

Wang said that although the state has already brought in a raft of policies to support the disabled, more needs to be done to ensure all disabled people have the same educational opportunities as their able-bodied counterparts. 

She said, "For instance there is only one school in Shenzhen exclusively catering for the disabled. This is far from enough to allow all the city's disabled children to receive compulsory education and their level of education is crucial to being able to go on to secure a proper standard of living."

"Even though some disabled persons get a job, they do not always get equal pay," said Wang. "Some have overcome their physical disabilities and performed as well as their colleagues at work, only to find they were being paid less for doing the same work. They need to be treated fairly."

Wang has a special feeling for Shenzhen where she lives. Some people say that the city is a cultural desert and its citizens are indifferent to the needs of others. Wang refutes this wholeheartedly. "What has created this surprisingly fast development in Shenzhen? Is it all just about the economy? Definitely not. compared with really big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Shenzhen is just in the process of turning itself into a mature metropolis. This in itself is a kind of culture, or the culture of Shenzhen. Everyone should evaluate the city fairly and objectively," she said.

Wang says that Shenzhen is not an indifferent city, but a city of hearts of gold. She said Shenzhen has the most volunteer blood donors among all the cities in China and has the best blood bank. What's more, there are many non governmental organizations (NGOs) doing good works and many Shenzhen teachers have given up their well paid jobs and comfortable city life to help in the underdeveloped rural areas. 

(China.org.cn, 17thcongress.org.cn by Zhang Tingting October 14, 2007)