They're stars in our eyes

The recent Beijing Ecology and Environment Week recognizes the outstanding efforts of some worthy individuals and collectives, Xu Lin reports.

Cheng Ang, a 39-year-old deliveryman from Beijing's Chaoyang district, does more than just courier products to the capital's online shoppers. He delivers happiness and warmth, literally, to the needy.

For nearly four years, he has been collecting secondhand clothes and sending them, at his own expense, to poverty-stricken areas of the country. He also actively recycles cardboard boxes from his deliveries.

He is one of the 10 individuals who were endowed with the title of "environment protection star" and recognized for their efforts as part of a contest during the recent Beijing Ecology and Environment Week. Awards for collectives that have achieved good results through similar endeavors were also unveiled.

Launched by the local government, the contest attracted over 1,000 individuals and 500 collectives. After two months, the final winners were selected by a panel of experts, backed by the more than 3 million online votes that were cast.

"I'm surprised that I won the prize, as I think what I've done are just small good deeds. The more I'm involved, however, the more I want to persist," Cheng says.

He recalls that when he delivers parcels, he often sees residents in the communities cast aside what they consider to be old clothes, but some are practically new and can be worn again.

He has also noticed that people donate clothes or items to addresses that they find online, but some of the information is obsolete and the parcel ends up being returned to the sender.

"In big cities like Beijing, those with a higher standard of living buy new clothes regularly. It's a pity that some clothes that they dispose of are practically new," he says.

"As a deliveryman, I can send deliveries at a preferential price. So I started to select good clothes, wash them and donate them."

Thanks to the help of volunteers from NGOs, he found a reliable way to send such clothes to those who are in need.

After being sorted and separated into children's and adult clothing, he regularly sends them to left-behind children in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture of Southwest China's Sichuan province, and a nursing home for the elderly in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province.