More than 600 sanitation workers gathered at the roadside of Tianxingqiao Centre Street, Shapingba District (Photographed by Yang Xinyu)

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Every year during the winter solstice, he will carefully prepare, in order to give a group of sanitation workers to eat hot mutton soup pot. And he insisted on the love banquet for 18 years. “When I saw the sanitation workers eating the hot soup pot with the most sincere smile on their face, I felt that everything I did was worth it.” The host is Zhang Shiwen, who told the reporter of Chongqing Morning Post that he would continue to do so as long as he has the ability in the future.

The banquet was arranged from the start to the end of the street

On the second day after the winter solstice, more than 600 sanitation workers gathered at the roadside of Tianxingqiao Main Street, Shapingba District. Eighty tables were arranged from the head to the end of the street, and laughter spread from one end to the other.

There are more than ten tables in the courtyard outside the mutton soup pot shop of Xiaoyangfang. On the sidewalk, the tables were arranged in turn, and each table was full of workers. The table was covered by vegetable dishes such as cabbage, radish and vermicelli. With the beginning of the banquet, the mutton soup pot full of mutton and mutton offal has also been brought to the table.

“Let’s begin!” As in previous years, Zhang Shiwen, the host, would like to say a few words of blessing to them, “This year, you have worked hard! Eat mutton! Drink whatever you like!”

According to Zhang Shiwen, this year, he invited 800 sanitation workers, but some of them were working, so they couldn’t come for lunch today. So this year he specially wanted to “set it up for three days”. At noon tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, sanitation workers who did not have a mutton soup pot could come to him and continue to eat mutton soup pot for free. They can enjoy the same treatment.

Sanitation workers “feel particularly warm”

In winter, with the cold wind, most people would like to stay indoors. But there are such a group of people, most of them get up to work in the early hours of the morning, or wait until midnight when everyone has a rest to transport garbage. They are sanitation workers. In Chongqing, on the winter solstice, people gather together to eat a mutton soup pot to dispel the chill. But Zhang Shiwen “united” them.

Gu Zhengxue is an environmental sanitation worker in the area of Yubei Road, Shapingba District. He has eaten this mutton soup pot for the seventh consecutive year. According to him, he was reluctant to buy mutton in ordinary days, let alone eat a mutton soup pot in the restaurant. He was very moved for Zhang invited them to eat every year. “The society is paying more and more attention to our sanitation work, and we feel very warm.”

Zhang Shiwen insisted on hospitality for 18 years. Since it was held in 2002, he spent a total of nearly 2 million and invited more than 10,000 (persons) sanitation workers to eat mutton in the winter solstice. Zhang Shiwen said that as long as he has the ability, he will continue to do that. (Translated by Luo Juan, Fathom Language Limited)