After leaving the now famous Bird's Nest National Stadium project more than one year, Leng Bao, a 28-year-old Tibetan migrant worker, said he never expected to return to the place where he had toiled for 70 days.
Without any Internet skills, Leng, an orphan and former steel worker, realized his dream of returning to his former job site with the help of 10 persons he didn't know.
"It's amazing to be here watching the games," said Leng, dressed in a brown suit, looking healthy with tanned skin and a shining smile while taking in the track and field events on Friday.
"When I was working on the stadium one year ago, I always said to myself it would be the happiest thing for me to earn enough money and watch the Games in the stadium."
Thanks to Lu, a worker at Beijing Botany Garden, Leng got his chance to be in the stadium again, this time as part of the audience. His journey had taken him from a remote village in China's northwestern Qinghai Province to the nation's capital.
After arriving in Beijing on Thursday, Lu met with Leng on Friday morning where he presented him with a yellow safety hat. Leng had worn the hardhat when he worked in the Bird Nest.
"I was fined 10 yuan (1.46 U.S. dollars) for keeping the cap after I left there last July. It's meaningful to me," said Leng, "I give it to my kind-hearted friend."
One month ago, the portal website www.163.com proposed a campaign to send Leng, who had become famous after singing a song on a CCTV program about migrant worker, to watch the Olympics. The portal asked internet goers to send donations for the trip. More than 400 people pledged their support. Eventually, 10 people were chosen to help him.
"My father was also a steel worker," said Zhang Zhen, a web designer who had moved here from the neighbouring Shandong Province five months ago."Leng looked like my brother. If we did not help him enjoy the Olympics, he would never have a chance again."
Zhang met Leng at the railway station on Thursday afternoon and invited him to spend his first night in Beijing, this time around, in his rented home.
Leng will visit the Forbidden City and other tourist spots on Saturday with 550 yuan provided by a company executive surnamed Hu.
He will go back to his hometown on Sunday with the help of a man from Suzhou in the eastern Jiangsu Province, who had paid his train fare.
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2008)