The reason was that he hoped to join his girlfriend there.

He got a job with the local food import and export company. However, he was assigned to work at the Baishi pig farm, 30 kilometers away from central Zhongshan.

During the day, he cleaned the pigsties, transported fodder and fed the pigs. At night, he fought with mosquitoes in a dormitory which was almost a makeshift shed.

He wanted to leave the job, but his mother and girlfriend -- now his wife -- encouraged him to stay. They said that he should change the working environment there instead of running away.

Fresh from college, he had a lot of new ideas to change the management of the pig farm. He was able to win the trust of his colleagues and the managers after he led a chorus group from the farm to win first place in a local singing competition.

He also gained confidence after he successfully cured the farm's hounds who were suffering an epidemic disease.

Four years later, he became the farm's general manager. Over the past 11 years, Chen, 36, and his colleagues have transformed the farm into one of the best and most modern pig farms in the country. With 100 employees holding a college education, the farm supplies the market with some 4,000 pigs of breeding stock and 50,000 hogs a year.

During the forthcoming 16th CPC National Congress, Chen, as a delegate, will put forward his ideas on improving the country's legal and moral education of the young, and on advancing agriculture in China and foreign trade.

"We should also pay more attention to vulnerable groups in the society as well," he said.

(China Daily November 7, 2002)