A moving cross-province journey honoring veterans of the 1950-1953 War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea concluded recently, after dozens of students and faculty members from Tianjin Binhai Vocational Institute of Automotive Engineering escorted two Tianjin-based veterans to Luoyang, Henan, for the institute’s ongoing ‘Heroes, Hello’ program.
Spanning four days, the excursion brought the Tianjin delegation together with 34 local Henan-based veterans for a series of commemorative and recreational activities, including tours of Luoyang’s world-famous peony gardens, open shared storytelling sessions where veterans recounted their wartime experiences, and one-on-one support for veterans with mobility impairments. Collectively, the 36 veterans in attendance have an average age of 92, carrying decades of memories from the conflict that shaped modern East Asia.
Launched two years ago by the vocational institute, the ‘Heroes, Hello’ program has rapidly expanded its scope across China, reaching more than 20 provinces and connecting with over 40,000 people, including surviving war veterans and family members of soldiers who died in service. The initiative was designed to move beyond traditional classroom-based ideological and political education, creating opportunities for young people to interact directly with national heroes in person.
“Ideological and political education should not be locked inside four classroom walls,” explained Jia Xiufang, chairperson of the Tianjin Binhai Vocational Institute of Automotive Engineering. “Our students need to engage with living history, and meet the heroes who built our country’s safety in person.”
For participating students, the experience transformed abstract textbook history into a tangible, deeply personal lesson. Wang Yuchuan, an automotive service and marketing major at the institute, shared that his prior understanding of the war came entirely from course materials before the trip. “Meeting these veterans face to face made the spirit of that generation feel real, not just words on a page,” he said.
Ninety-four-year-old veteran Wang Lanju, one of the attendees, shared a harrowing firsthand account of his service: he recalled working to construct an airfield in North Korea while facing constant enemy bombing raids. “No matter how heavy the attacks were, none of us retreated,” he stated firmly.
Beyond the excursion, the institute has already worked to preserve these veterans’ stories for future education: it has compiled hundreds of hours of oral history interviews into official teaching materials for its students. Looking ahead, the institution has scheduled a special campus event for May 18, where it will host 25 surviving female Korean War veterans to share their experiences with the student body.