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on the evening of september 21, in tianjin, at the "write the splendor of youth on the land of the motherland" ideological and political course online theme publicity and interactive guidance activity held at nankai university, famous actor lin yongjian played the role of guo yonghuai, winner of the "two bombs and one satellite medal of merit", and told the story of guo yonghuai's important contributions to the development of china's nuclear bombs and missiles. photo by tian jiashuo

photo of guo yonghuai (1909-1968) at the themed exhibition "marching under the party's banner - the people's army celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the communist party of china". haifeng/fotoe photo courtesy of visual china

in 1956, mechanic guo yonghuai returned to china from the united states. the picture shows guo yonghuai giving a tutorial to graduate students at tsinghua university. image courtesy of visual china

in another three years, the time since guo yonghuai's death will have been as long as the time he lived. fewer and fewer people have seen him, while more and more people have heard of him.

his name appears in exhibitions of qinghai atomic city, the institute of mechanics of the chinese academy of sciences, the china academy of engineering physics, nankai university, peking university, the university of the chinese academy of sciences, and the university of science and technology of china. there is an asteroid named after him in the sky.

in his hometown of rongcheng, shandong, the guide of the guo yonghuai memorial museum said that this name disappeared for a while - at first, even the curator didn't know him. "but if you ask in schools now, there should be no one who doesn't know guo yonghuai," she said.

the 23 founding fathers of my country's "two bombs and one satellite" all had their own experiences of hiding their identities. guo yonghuai was the only expert in the three fields of nuclear bombs, missiles and artificial satellites, the only martyr, and one of the few scientists who came from a rural background.

he used a donkey as an example to explain scientific problems: shandong farmers would know their donkeys' living habits very well if they wanted to make them work, otherwise the donkeys would not obey them if they got angry. he said that the same principle applies to using much more complex modern computing equipment.

he grew up in a house made of stone, mud and seaweed. in the early 20th century when he lived, donkeys in rongcheng county, shandong province were as common as cars on the streets today. guo yonghuai left his donkey-riding life and took a ship across the ocean. he studied and worked overseas for 16 years. when he returned to china, he still spoke with a thick jiaodong accent and directed the development of nuclear weapons.

at the age of 59, guo yonghuai finished preparing for the thermonuclear missile test in the northwest and flew back to beijing. the plane crashed during landing. people found two bodies tightly hugged together in the fire. after struggling to separate them, they saw an intact briefcase in the middle, which contained the test materials. it was guo yonghuai and his guard.

this summer, a five or six-year-old boy stood in the guo yonghuai memorial hall and cried loudly while watching the video footage of the plane crash. the curator, li bo, later placed a box of tissues nearby and replenished them regularly. after visiting the hall, two entrepreneurs donated two scholarships - the "yonghuai education award" and the "yonghuai rural teacher award."

after the summer vacation, at the opening ceremony of the university of chinese academy of sciences, zhang yulin from rongcheng heard president zhou qi mention this name again. at this time, guo yonghuai was already 100 years older than most undergraduate freshmen.

to this day, the play named after him is still performed in universities. freshmen of the school of physics at nankai university rehearse the play "forever remembering" every year. however, it is not easy to understand this scientist alumnus from "another era". in the spacious building, these students who enjoy good educational resources rehearse repeatedly to perform an imagined "determination" and "righteousness".

in fact, guo yonghuai in real life was not entirely such a typical character.

　　it is difficult for people of this era to perform the difficulties of that era.

his time seems so far away from us.

in order to understand guo yonghuai, shi xinqi, one of the creators of the drama "yonghuai" from the school of physics of nankai university, went to the qinghai 221 base where the atomic bomb was developed. she described the environment of the atomic bomb test as follows: "it's not modern. you can tell at a glance that they built it like that because they didn't have money."

during the rehearsal of the drama, she found that the most difficult part was not the large amount of dialogue, nor the detailed body movements during the plane crash, but the difficult performance conditions - what kind of emotion and spirit do people use to speak in such a difficult environment?

"drinking alkaline water, living in tents, cooking wild vegetables... this part is difficult to stage because no one has ever experienced it." shi xinqi said, "you can feel that people of this era just can't act out the difficulties of that era."

they had to guide the young actors to imagine. living in a tent in the plateau in winter, when they woke up in the morning, they had to cover their eyes with their hands and massage them for a while before they could open them, because their eyebrows and eyes were covered with frost.

hunger once became the biggest obstacle to the development of the atomic bomb. "forging a shield for the country: china's road to the atomic bomb" describes that scientists at the time could only eat one steamed bun and a dime worth of dried vegetable soup for each meal. employees of the affiliated power plant ate fried highland barley noodles leaked from the transformer. hunger causes constipation and edema. nearly half of the people at the nuclear weapons research institute suffered from edema, and the feet of deputy director peng huanwu were so swollen that he couldn't wear cloth shoes.

winters on the plateau are long. guo yonghuai and his team once conducted a month-long nuclear bomb test in the depths of the badain jaran desert. the 54-year-old guo yonghuai sat in a jeep without heating, bumping along for more than four hours every day. there were no tents on the gobi desert, and everyone sat on the ground, eating frozen steamed buns and pickles, with a thermos of hot water from the military station as lunch, including guo yonghuai.

in order to let students experience the past, the university of chinese academy of sciences built part of its campus on the site of the beijing huairou rocket test base, which was founded by qian xuesen, guo yonghuai and other older scientists. the gym and metalworking laboratory were the production workshops of the "two bombs and one satellite" at that time. the "lover's slope" where students stroll is located next to the fuel depot at that time, and the river on the campus is the flood discharge ditch at that time.

zhang yulin and guo yonghuai are from the same hometown. in fact, they only have similar accents. as for their hometowns, they are almost two different worlds.

rongcheng is close to the sea, and in zhang yulin's eyes it is a "coastal city" with beautiful scenery and tranquility. for guo yonghuai, this place means the sino-japanese war of 1894-1895, chaos, ports and innovation.

he was born in xitan guojia village, tengjia township, rongcheng county, shandong province in 1909. before that, the japanese army had landed in rongcheng bay, the beiyang fleet was annihilated, and weihai began its 32-year colonial history.

when he was 10 years old, guo yonghuai was kidnapped by bandits and drifted on the sea for four or five months. after that, his father sent him to a small town called shidao to study. when guo yonghuai enrolled, mingde primary school already had courses such as chinese, english, mathematics, geography, history, self-cultivation, science, and drawing. this was one of the beginnings of modern new cultural education in jiaodong. he received formal education from then on until he left rongcheng at the age of 17.

"i didn't live in the family for a long time, but it still had an impact on me," he said.

wang dezhao, the founder of china's hydroacoustic industry and the first director of the institute of acoustics of the chinese academy of sciences, mentioned a small incident in his memorial collection: "once, guo yonghuai was by the flower bed in zhongguancun and saw papers flying everywhere. he said to him: in shandong, because of respect for confucius, even a piece of paper on the ground must be picked up. how come the academy of sciences is full of papers?"

　　studying aviation as a way to save the country

guo yonghuai was gentle and taciturn. in the few group photos, he always stood in the back row.

"when i first arrived in the city, i always felt out of tune with my city classmates in terms of living habits, thoughts and feelings, and kept my distance." in a short autobiography, guo yonghuai recalled his feelings when he first arrived in qingdao to attend middle school.

after being admitted to nankai university, guo yonghuai initially studied electrical engineering automation for employment considerations. a year later, he felt that "what he learned was not very exciting" and "at the same time, he had new thoughts about his future."

when he was studying in qingdao, he saw with his own eyes: "on one side is the sphere of influence of the united states, and on the other side is the stronghold of japanese merchants. the chinese can only open small shops in the remote areas of houhai. how can foreigners freely occupy chinese land, while the chinese themselves have no freedom?"

guo yonghuai felt that "society is too dark and too complicated", while the school environment is simple and "professor life is relatively noble". "in order to be able to teach in school in the future, i changed my major to physics, thinking that studying physics could achieve this goal."

at that time, guo yonghuai became interested in optics. after graduation, he felt that he was "far from being a professor" and continued to study for a master's degree. unfortunately, the "july 7 incident" broke out and the war in peking broke out, so he interrupted his studies again and returned to weihai.

during this period, he taught briefly for half a year at weihai middle school, where the school bells were made of shells left over from the sino-japanese war of 1894-1895.

soon, the japanese army occupied weihai, and guo yonghuai went south to study at southwest associated university. due to the continuous artillery fire on land, he took a cargo ship in weihai to hong kong, but because he did not have a passport, he returned to guangzhou to apply for a passport, then returned to hong kong, transferred to vietnam, and returned to china via the yunnan-vietnam railway and entered yunnan.

after arriving in yunnan, "southwest associated university announced the cancellation of the research institute, and there was no job to be found on campus, so i had to ask several teachers in the physics department to help introduce me to participate in the anti-japanese work...i didn't go." guo yonghuai had to do some work in a middle school and the associated university, and temporarily followed zhou peiyuan to study turbulence theory.

before finishing his graduate studies, guo yonghuai had the opportunity to take the examination for overseas students funded by the boxer indemnity.

when it came time to choose a major again, he finally realized: "studying physics is too far from the current needs of the country, so i decided to study aviation as a way to save the country."

"qian weichang, lin jiaqiao and guo yonghuai all studied physics, and they all chose to take the aeronautical engineering exam because they felt that our country's military strength was too weak." li pei later recalled, "at that time, there was only one quota for aeronautical engineering, but 50 people applied."

guo yonghuai failed the first time he applied, but he applied again the following year and was finally admitted.

in august 1940, the war sent guo yonghuai, who had been drifting around, onto a cruise ship. the overseas students took a group photo on the ship, with guo yonghuai still standing in the back row.

he later said: "i fled abroad with a feeling of shame because i felt i had no way to save my country." "(this) was a turning point in my life and determined the path i would take in the future."

　　"a poor family and a poor country can only reflect the incompetence of the sons"

on the other side of the ocean is a rich world.

in china, guo yonghuai went to many places and took four years to complete his master's degree, but he got it in just half a year at the department of applied mathematics at the university of toronto in canada.

afterwards, he came to the united states to study for a doctorate degree under the tutelage of aerospace engineer von karman at the california institute of technology, where there is the most advanced guggenheim aeronautical laboratory.

for four years, guo yonghuai devoted himself to studying the problem of aircraft losing control when crossing the speed of sound. in his collection of memorials for guo yonghuai, aerodynamicist and academician of the chinese academy of sciences zhuang fenggan recalled: "mr. guo yonghuai was the most hardworking among his fellow graduate students. he worked hard on his research in his room all day long." qian xuesen, who was also at the california institute of technology at the time, said: "yonghuai found a topic for his doctoral thesis that no one wanted to touch. he worked tirelessly and obtained unexpected results."

in 1945, guo yonghuai's doctoral thesis "transonic flow discontinuity solution" solved the world's difficult problem of the sound barrier and promoted the design of supersonic aircraft. he was invited to cornell university as an associate professor at the institute of aeronautics, ushering in his most outstanding 10 years in academia.

he created the singular perturbation theory to solve the problem of viscous fluid. "this problem is even more difficult, and even the mathematical method has to be developed in a new way." this theory was called the plk (poincare-lighthill-guo yonghuai) method by qian xuesen and has been widely used in mechanics, physics and other fields.

in 1958, wei shuru, a student at the beijing university of aeronautics and astronautics, remembered guo yonghuai because in the modern science class, "especially when introducing the contributions of scientists, chinese names were rarely heard."

many years later, guo yonghuai confided to his student yu hongru that intellectuals all hope to achieve some scientific results, and from the perspective of personal achievement, returning to china would be a loss.

while teaching at cornell university, guo yonghuai earned $800 a month. he enjoyed paid vacations and spent half a year lecturing or traveling abroad. he lived in a single-family house and bought a car. he fell in love with classical music and bought an old phonograph and many records. he also developed an interest in stamps and had several stamp albums.

"returning to china means giving up an opportunity to work with top talents to solve cutting-edge problems in a supportive environment," wrote qian xuesen in silk: a biography. "china needs scientists to use their talents to help defend the motherland, not sit there thinking about mathematical solutions for space travel. once they return to china, their days of continuing to make breakthroughs in science are over."

guo yonghuai thought, "when i went abroad and saw some of the conditions in the united states, i felt even more that my own country was backward." in his spare time, he always wondered, "when will my own country become like others, with highly developed science, culture, and industry? every time i thought of this, i felt very hopeless. although i could not do anything about it for the time being, i always kept thinking about these issues."

at that time, the chinese faced severe racial discrimination. "they were often refused service in restaurants, barber shops and hotels. in movie theaters, chinese and their children were often not allowed to sit with white people. in as many as 30 states, it was illegal for chinese to marry white people," wrote chinese-american writer iris chang.

geophysicist and chinese academy of sciences member fu chengyi recalled in his collection of essays in memory of guo yonghuai that when he was in the united states, "guo yonghuai had a very strong sense of national self-esteem." "among the students who went there at that time, quite a few of them were top students, no worse than americans, but some of them were servile to foreigners. we couldn't stand such people."

just like when he was in middle school in qingdao, he was not good at speaking and rarely socialized. guo yonghuai rarely participated in the recreational activities organized by the school for chinese students. he joined the american chapter of the chinese association of scientists.

at a party, guo yonghuai's tall, thin appearance and taciturn personality left an impression on li pei. in 1948, guo yonghuai and li pei got married in new york state, usa.

while teaching at cornell university, he refused to participate in u.s. confidential work. "the school once suggested applying for access to classified information, which required filling out a form, one of which was: if a war breaks out, are you willing to serve in the u.s. military? i filled in 'no'." guo yonghuai once said, "when i taught at cornell university, i also made it clear in advance that i was here temporarily and would leave at the appropriate time in the future."

in 1955, guo yonghuai was promoted to full professor. in august of the same year, china won a diplomatic victory in the geneva talks, and the united states lifted the ban on chinese students leaving the country. "that was when i decided to return to china," he said.

"many of his friends in the united states, including naturalized chinese friends, advised him that the professorship at cornell university was a good thing and his children would receive a better education in the united states in the future..." li pei recalled. "it would have been better if he hadn't advised him. the more people advised him, the angrier guo became. he said, 'a poor family and a poor country can only show that his son is incompetent!'"

at this time, guo yonghuai's daughter guo qin was already 4 years old. guo yonghuai mentioned in "why i returned to the motherland" that he was a middle-aged man with children and wanted his children to grow up in an environment with self-esteem. "all parents who live in the united states and have children of school age will inevitably feel the pain of being discriminated against by others. children are innocent, and if there is such a disease in society, they will of course reflect it very realistically. bullying and insults will inevitably leave a traumatic mark on the hearts of children." he said, "only in a normal society can young people develop freely and have the opportunity to freely choose their careers."

when preparing to return to china, guo yonghuai burned many manuscripts of his scientific research articles and teaching notes in the backyard of his house. li pei recalled: "i tried to dissuade him, saying: 'why burn them? they will be useful when i return to china!' he said: 'it will save the trouble for the government and customs. anyway, everything is in my mind!'"

li pei recalled that because guo yonghuai gave people the impression that he was not interested in politics, when he later returned to china, hu shi once said: people like guo yonghuai are returning to china, which is really what people want.

in february 1956, qian xuesen wrote an anxious letter to guo yonghuai: "i am very happy to hear that you always say that you will be back soon. we are busy with mechanics now, and have registered your name with the management office of the academy of sciences. naturally, you should come to the institute of mechanics. come quickly, come quickly!"

eight months later, guo yonghuai and his family boarded the ship to return home.

qian xuesen wrote again: "we have prepared your 'office' for you in the institute. it is a south-facing room on the second floor with light green curtains and a row of pine trees outside. i hope you will be satisfied. your housing has also been prepared, and it is only a five-minute walk from the office."

　　paving stones underfoot

this office is still preserved. guo yonghuai did not have much time to look at the pine trees outside the window, as he was used to drawing the curtains when working.

in the 10 years before qian xuesen and guo yonghuai returned to china, the us aircraft manufacturing industry developed rapidly, with los angeles manufacturing more than 100,000 aircraft for the us government alone. in china, the automobile industry was just beginning to take off. in the year when guo yonghuai returned to china, the changchun first automobile manufacturing plant ended china's history of not being able to manufacture cars independently.

as for aeronautical engineering, "there were no research tools or equipment." researchers even had difficulty obtaining basic materials for missile manufacturing, such as rubber, stainless steel pipes, and aluminum sheets. qian xuesen once wrote, "at this time, my thoughts turned 180 degrees, from optimism to pessimism. i really felt that scientific research was difficult to make. it was so frustrating... i didn't know how to struggle in the difficult environment, how to find a way out, and how to start from scratch."

in an article published in the people's daily, qian xuesen said: "we first realized that the most pressing issue at present is teaching, rather than conducting independent research right away."

in fact, this is the part that qian xuesen is not very good at. when he was abroad, his students often complained: "if someone asked a stupid question, qian xuesen would not answer it at all. he also banned these questioners from taking his class again." one student said, "he can't stand stupid people."

after returning to china, guo yonghuai served as deputy director of the institute of mechanics. as qian xuesen was overloaded with tasks, guo yonghuai actually became the main leader of the institute of mechanics. wen gongbi, a professor of the department of mechanics at peking university, later recalled that whenever he knocked on the door to guo yonghuai's office, "he would immediately get up from his desk and walk to the small blackboard at the door, waiting for my questions, and then start answering my questions on the small blackboard."

guo yonghuai once gave a message to the first batch of graduate students he supervised after returning to china: "we returned to china mainly to train talents for the country, lay the foundation for domestic scientific undertakings, and be pavers. our generation, you and the next two or three generations will become the paving stones for the mechanics of the motherland." his student, shanghai university professor dai shiqiang, later often asked himself: "mr. guo asked you to be the paving stone, did you do it?"

he arranged for his student yu hongru to conduct research related to shock tubes. "because shock tubes have a wide range of uses and are inexpensive, they meet our requirements." yu hongru, who later became an academician of the chinese academy of sciences, said, "at that time, the material conditions of the institute of mechanics were extremely poor, and the funding we could get was very small." he recalled that guo yonghuai had said many times that you can work with little money, and you should learn to solve difficult problems in the most cost-effective way.

guo yonghuai believed that new theories and technologies emerging from mechanics research should be radiated to the whole country through academic conferences. however, based on china's actual situation, the qualifications of participants should not be too high, and the number of observers should be particularly broad, with attention paid to the western and remote areas.

some people remember that every time guo yonghuai gave a report at a meeting, he would sit on a swivel chair and turn his chair to the person who was speaking so that he could talk to him face to face. he never cared about differences of opinion and disputes. "what he always cared about was the right and wrong of scientific understanding," said wu lanchun of the china academy of engineering physics.

during the cultural revolution, he still discussed scientific issues with qian weichang, who was labeled a rightist. once, when qian weichang was reviewing articles for a magazine that guo yonghuai was in charge of, someone said: rightist professors are not allowed to review articles by leftist professors. guo yonghuai responded: we believe qian weichang's opinion is correct, and it has nothing to do with left or right.

lin hongsun from the institute of mechanics was persecuted. before he committed suicide, guo yonghuai let him live in his home and tried his best to protect him. liu chuntu from the institute of mechanics was criticized by the rebels and expelled from the party. the news was announced in the form of a big-character poster in the lobby on the first floor. in the lobby, guo yonghuai called him, patted him on the shoulder and said: hold your head up, hold your chest up, and don't listen to their nonsense.

yu hongru recalled that political movements were happening one after another, and it was difficult to speak at meetings. "we asked mr. guo what to do, and he advised us to speak as little as possible, but we must not tell lies anyway." at the work report meeting of the whole institute, guo yonghuai said bluntly: "we must persist in doing our science."

　　"this is for poor people to make atomic bombs"

people later rarely mentioned the traces of guo yonghuai's life abroad in their memories of him.

many people met him on the street. he always walked to work, wearing a peaked cap, carrying a briefcase, tall and slender, and walking slowly with big strides. in the morning, he walked from his residence on the 13th floor of zhongguancun to the institute of mechanics, and walked back in the evening. he did this every day, including weekends.

in the summer evenings, he often walked around the offices in shorts, holding a palm leaf fan. he brought the electric fans that were brought back from the ship to the institute of mechanics. he donated two boxes of unopened records to the china national radio. he gave three stamp albums to the state post bureau.

the only time guo yonghuai expressed his love for western food was on a plane in 1959 when he represented china to attend the international mechanics conference in romania. after the conference, guo yonghuai discussed with liu chuntu, a researcher at the institute of mechanics who was accompanying him: the country is short of foreign exchange now, so is it okay to hand in all the remaining living expenses (issued by the organizer)? "he also discussed this with me, which left a very deep impression on me," liu chuntu recalled. "under his influence, i was more frugal in foreign exchange in several subsequent foreign academic exchange activities."

in 1960, qian xuesen recommended guo yonghuai to secretly participate in the research and development of the atomic bomb. he, wang ganchang and peng huanwu were called the "three pillars" of my country's early nuclear weapons development. guo yonghuai was responsible for the structural design, strength calculation and environmental testing of my country's first atomic bomb.

few people knew that he was involved in this work. sui puru of the institute of mechanics recalled in the "memorial collection of guo yonghuai" that at a meeting to discuss the adjustment of research topics, the business office wanted to withdraw a topic led by guo yonghuai on the grounds that it had "no clear application goals." "director guo listened quietly until the final decision was made, then he slowly stood up and said: 'i have not said it all along, not because i don't want to say it, but because it is difficult to say it. now i have to say it. this topic cannot be withdrawn. it is related to the key technology of isotope separation.' finally, he emphasized: 'this is to make atomic bombs for the poor!'"

in 1963, nuclear weapons research and production personnel concentrated in beijing moved to jinyintan in qinghai. "every time i went on a business trip, i took a small suitcase and put some clothes in it. the unit allocated a car for them. when i saw the car parked downstairs, i knew that lao guo was leaving again," said li pei.

in october 1964, guo yonghuai returned home and "had dinner with his colleagues. they rarely got together on normal days, but they were all very happy that day. afterwards, i learned that they were celebrating the successful explosion of the atomic bomb," said li pei.

in 1965, the chinese academy of sciences received a letter: "in accordance with the prime minister's instructions to tighten the belt and build the country with diligence and thrift, i am now offering my early savings abroad and the economic construction bonds i subscribed a few years ago, totaling more than 48,460 yuan, to the state. please transfer it to the state." the letter was signed by guo yonghuai and li pei. it is said that at that time, 2,000 yuan could buy a courtyard house in beijing, and the salary of an ordinary worker was only 20 to 30 yuan.

in the 12 years after returning to china, guo yonghuai held several positions and was responsible for a number of research projects, but many colleagues and students still received his notes.

dai shiqiang said: "sometimes he sent us a piece of paper with the words: reference books for you."

the note that niu jiayu received contained the publication number of an article that was very useful for her research, but the name was misspelled as "niu jiayi".

he personally found and delivered materials that researchers could not find. when young people could not understand something, he went to the library to find english-language enlightenment textbooks and taught them how to learn.

li yuchang recalled that a large pile of documents were submitted to guo yonghuai every day, and he read them very carefully, correcting even the smallest errors in text and discrepancies in numbers.

he never took a nap and once told his colleagues: you spend too much time eating every day, and you have to queue up for three meals a day. in the united states, he often brought bread and sausages to the studio to work all day.

in 1961, the world table tennis championships were held in beijing. guo yonghuai watched the event halfway through and then left. he said that table tennis had brought glory to the country, and thinking that the atomic bomb would bring even greater glory, he could not sit still and wanted to go back to work.

even wang ganchang, director of the institute of atomic energy, said that guo yonghuai's greatest characteristic was that he was "very diligent, cherished time very much, and rarely rested." "every time i worked with him, i always saw that he was very busy. at 5 or 6 o'clock in the afternoon, when it was time to get off work and we all went home, he would pick up his briefcase and tell me that he had other things to do. this happened frequently."

because of this, he would rather fly than take the train when on business trips. "i was the one who sent him on the plane when the plane crashed," wang ganchang recalled.

after the national day in 1968, guo yonghuai went to qinghai 221 base to participate in the test preparations for my country's first new type of thermonuclear bomb. during this time, he received a letter from his daughter who went to the countryside to work in the production team. guo qin wanted a pair of cotton shoes for the winter.

he went to the base store to look, but because he didn't know his daughter's shoe size, he didn't buy any. on november 3, he wrote back to his daughter and wrote his last letter home.

"ms. qin: we don't have cloth shoes yet. can you draw a sample of your feet? i will buy them when they are available. i have a pair of leather cotton shoes here. i wanted to buy a pair for you, but i didn't dare to because they were out of size." he reminded her in the letter: "are your hands better? be careful when you first start working. being too aggressive and being careless are the same. both are wrong."

on november 15, guo yonghuai wrote another note to li pei: "i plan to return to beijing after i have arranged my work properly, probably after the 20th. i bought the shoes when i passed xining, and the shoe sizes don't seem to be uniform. i'll make a temporary judgment and it doesn't matter if they are a little bigger."

due to work delays, guo yonghuai finally set off for beijing on december 14. li bo, curator of the guo yonghuai memorial museum, recorded this journey in detail: guo yonghuai and his guard mou fangdong took a light blue car to the xining office guesthouse. the next morning, after eating shredded pork noodles in the cafeteria, they set off for lanzhou airport.

driver sun xuesi recalled that in lanzhou, guo yonghuai wanted to buy a pair of shoes, but he didn't find anything he liked.

during the interval of changing planes, li ronglin recalled that guo yonghuai also listened to the report of the project team on the development of the shanghai 5t electromagnetic vibration table.

at 1:59 p.m., guo yonghuai boarded the il-14 aircraft bound for beijing, with 6 passengers and crew members on board, and the flight time was about 4 hours. during the landing phase, due to the pilot's error in altitude control, the aircraft touched the ground and caught fire 1,209 meters from the end of the runway.

when people found guo yonghuai, he was hugging his guard mou fangdong. they were already burnt, with their limbs curled up. only a few tufts of gray hair on the back of his head were left, which were not burned by the fire. the driver shao chungui who went to the airport to pick him up recognized guo yonghuai based on this: "he was 59 years old at that time, with gray hair."

guo yonghuai's nephew guo puyuan recalled: when viewing his remains, guo yonghuai's body was covered with a piece of white cloth, "you could see that it was still in the shape of being hugged."

upon hearing the news, zhou enlai instructed the people's daily to publish an obituary. due to confidentiality, the obituary was brief: comrade guo yonghuai, a member of the communist party of china and a representative of the national people's congress, died in an unfortunate accident at the age of 59. comrade guo yonghuai made contributions in his scientific and technological work.

today, a statue of guo yonghuai stands in the lawn of the main building of the institute of mechanics of the chinese academy of sciences, with the ashes of guo yonghuai, mou fangdong and li pei buried below. the tombstone reads: "a couple, two legends. they are both role models and successors."

china youth daily and china youth network reporter du jiabing source: china youth daily