From farm to table

When farmer Zhang Shuo started his job as a food deliveryman during the slack period in the summer of 2018, he didn't plan to do it for very long.

However, it took the 28-year-old just one year to be promoted as manager of the online services platform Meituan's delivery operations in Hegang city, Heilongjiang province.

Over the past four years, Zhang has helped over 300 poverty-stricken people and provided around 1,000 job opportunities to local residents in the city.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions recently announced this year's May 1 Labor Medal winners, listing 966 workers in manufacturing, food delivery and ride-hailing.

Zhang won the award because of his enterprising spirit, outstanding performance in poverty alleviation and sense of social responsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zhang was one of last year's winners of the medal at the provincial level.

On April 30, he was honored with the title of "the most beautiful worker", which is given by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Finding a job as food deliveryman had not been his plan at first, let alone winning a national honor.

After graduating from Jiamusi Vocational College in 2015, he got a job designing advertisements in the provincial capital, Harbin.

Two years later, he decided to return to his hometown-Dongsheng village in Hegang-to help his aging parents with their rice farm.

"When I found the recruitment information from Meituan in June 2018, I just intended to use the farm's off season to earn some money, I didn't plan on it becoming a permanent job," he says.