Huangde Line, stretching across Taoyuan County, Changde, is an important 220-voltage powerline connected to Fengtan Power Plant. It has been working well in the past 38 years under the guard of three generations of Xie’s family. There was no artificial tripping and damage to unity poles and cable occurred even in the severe 2008 Chinese winter storms.
Starting operation in 1978, Huangde Line has been featured with high safety risks and great difficulties in operation and maintenance, resulted by its out-of-the-way location. Passing through mountain ranges and thick woods for dozens of miles, few households can be seen and no path has been built for vehicles along the line. Powerline watchers served in 1978, the very beginning of operation, have to be faced with troubles in dining, accommodation, and walking.
Xie Yuntang, the grandfather in Xie’s family, lived near the line at that time. He helped accommodate the watchers at his log cabin, and often participated in their patrol. Since 1981, he started to assist in constructing the patrol path as a volunteer powerline guard. “My father has persisted in watching the line for several decades, even in very bad weather”, Xie Yuanheng, Xie Yuntang’s son, recalled. In 2003, Xie Yuntang was laid up with sudden illness. From then on, Xie Yuanheng started to shoulder his father’s responsibility independently.
No. 298 to No. 331 unity poles are within the responsibility of Xie Yuanheng. “No. 309 is the tallest. I climb up this pole in snowy days, to check the powerline’s condition”, he said.
Xie’s family has become the only household living in this mountain, after several neighbors’ moving in recent years. “It is convenient to watch the line”, Xie Yuanheng explained.
Xie Yuanheng is always busy with the fast growing bamboos in spring. One early morning, when he was patrolling the powerline as usual, he found a bamboo approaching a unity pole. He chopped down the bamboo while high-voltage electricity being conducted via the bamboo to his chopper. He rolled on the ground promptly to get rid of the induced voltage. It was his rich experience and quick response that saved himself from getting an electric shock at the moment.
Every traditional festival, numbers of people come to worship ancestors with burning joss sticks and candles, and fireworks, which potentially lead fires and endanger the powerline. Once, the wind fueled fire towards the powerline. Xie rushed to the site with his brothers and sons, cutting bamboos and bushes to isolate the powerline from fire.
Xie Zhiyong, Xie Yuanheng’s son, started to assist his father and grandfather in 1997, and already grew into a major guard today. “My father is getting old. So I take over his work when I am free”, said Xie Zhiyong. Snowy days are always the busy time, especially during the Spring Festival period, for accidents occur frequently. “We should ensure that the power won’t be cut off during the Spring Festival!”
Xie Zhiyong never tried to persuade his father to quit the guard work, though he once thought about it. After all, this is the undertaking handed down from his grandfather. He determined to take over it from his father as a lifetime responsibility.
