Huoshenshan Hospital (火神山医院, “Fire God Mountain Hospital”) is a 1000-bed hospital built in 10 days (January 23 - February 2, 2020) in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Construction of the hospital was live streamed in China. Weibo user @偶脚得偶还可以抢救一下 (roughly translates to “me thinks me still worth saving”) organized and posted an account of the process in 火神山建设不完全手册.
Translator: COVID-19 Readings
First, you need an urgent order: the China Construction Third Bureau shall lead, and Wuhan Construction Engineering, Wuhan Municipal Administration, Hanyang District Administration and other enterprises shall participate in the construction, commanding 7,500 workers and nearly a thousand sets of machineries and equipments, making a solemn promise to all Chinese people and the tormented Wuhan residents – “Ten days, build a life-saving hospital with a capacity of 1,000 beds”.
Then you need Beijing Zhongyuan International Engineering Design and Research Institute to finish organizing the design and construction drawings of Xiaotangshan Hospital from 17 years ago in 78 minutes, then hand them over to Wuhan CITIC Architectural Design Institute without reservation, and Dr. Huang Xizhen, the national survey and design master, to repeatedly remind you of the lessons learned.
You need CITIC Architectural Design Institute to assemble 60 designers in one hour, set up a non-profit project, contact hundreds of BIM designers across the country to participate, and go all out to battle: come up with a design plan within 24 hours, and finalize construction drawings in consultation with the construction unit within 60 hours.
You need Wuhan Hangfa Group to quickly enter the site to begin site leveling, road and drainage engineering construction. At the same time, the emergency engineering construction team composed of GeoEnviron, Oriental Yuhong, Xingyuan Environment, Yinjiang Environmental Protection and other leading companies in the industry to be responsible for the construction of anti-seepage projects, sewage treatment and medical waste transfer facilities; it is also necessary to summon the China Railway Heavy Industry Corporation, a subsidiary of China Railway Industry Corporation, and the 11th and 14th bureaus of China Railway Construction to rapidly increase their support to catch up with the construction at the most difficult time.
You need 260 electricians from the National Grid to work around the clock without sleep. You need six 10-box transformer substations from China Power Hubei Equipment Company, and complete the relocation of two 10-kilovolt lines, the installation of 24 box-type transformers, the laying of 8000 meters of power cables, and start the power transmission on time by January 31.
You need Eve Energy, before the completion of the power cable laying, to provide silent generator trucks to solve the emergency power supply of key equipment such as communication base stations.
You need Huawei, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile, China Tower, China Electronics, China Information Technology and other companies to cooperate closely and work together, after completing 5G signal coverage in 36 hours, to also deliver cloud resources and core systems computing and storage equipments, and to build a remote consultation system with the PLA General Hospital.
Then you can set up a camera behind the three osmanthus trees to start live streaming, and summon tens of millions of cloud supervisors, watching the cement trucks from Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, and Xugong Machinery busy working 24 hours a day.
You need PetroChina on-site refueling vehicles, and requisition Sinopec Zhiyin Avenue gas station to ensure fuel supply for the project site, while also providing instant noodles, boiling water, meeting venues and temporary toilets.
You need all the production staff of Ezhou Power Plant of China Three Gorges Group to station on the site to ensure power supply for Wuhan; China Railway Construction Express to give priority to the release of materials for Huoshenshan Hospital; Baowu Steel, Southern Building Materials, Minmetals Development to supply steel; and China National Building Material to provide gypsum board, keel.
You also have to use food delivered from all over China, grain and oil donated by COFCO Group to provide thousands of workers with three meals a day; within a day, Hubei Zhongbai Storage and Alibaba’s Taoxianda will build a “contactless cash register” supermarket to provide construction and medical workers with a convenient and safe place for living supplies.
During construction, you need large-size flame-retardant cables from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Hubei Aerospace Cable Company, cement from Huaxin Co., Ltd., fire-resistant coatings from Hebei Junhui , galvanized round steel from Zhengda Tubulation, rubber and plastic insulation materials from Huamei Energy Conservation Technology, 5931 toilets and faucets from Huida Sanitary Ware and Hegii, smoke and fire alarms from Gulf Security, 3500 prefabricated integrated rooms from three companies including Jiaqiang Energy Conservation Technology, ductile iron pipes from Xinxing Cathay International, municipal and construction pipes from Yonggao Co., 4800 sets of steel components from China Minmetals and China First Metallurgical Group, 50 sets of power equipment from Zhuzhou Megmeet, and 2000 valves from Shanghai Karon Valves Machinery.
When the building is done it is time to renovate. You need 100 managers and 500 construction staff from China Construction Shenzhuang Group to complete within three days the indoor and outdoor plastic laying, bathroom and buffer floor tiling, and the interior decoration of more than 200 wards.
Renovation complete, to build the information system, you need altogether over 2000 computers provided by Lenovo Group and a professional IT service team stationed on the site; public LCD displays provided by TCL Electronics; tablet computers provided by Xiaomi; network and security devices provided by Ziguang, Fiberhome Telecom, Qi’anxin; Internet hospital cloud platform provided by Winning Health Technology.
Professional equipment is indispensable. You need CT equipment from United Imaging, Shanghai Xintou, Neusoft; ICU ward and operating room specialized medical air conditioner from Weifang AirMasterl; thermal imaging chip from Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association; 930 UV disinfection lamps from Shanghai Signify; professional lighting equipment from Opple Lighting; 2000 electronic thermometers and 700 finger oximeters from Lepu Medical Technology; professional air purifiers from Huiqing Technology and Ogawa; medical service robots from OrionStar; property management team and bed supplies from Ouyada.
Transportation of all the above-mentioned materials depends on domestic and global green channels opened by Chinese logistics giants such as SF Express, ZTO Express, STO Express, Yunda Express, EMS, Alibaba Logistics Platform, etc., transporting aid materials for Wuhan from home and abroad free of charge.
Finally, let the professional team install the Gree air conditioner, and wait for Haier’s engineers to arrive at the scene with refrigerators on their backs because of road closure, and place the Midea water dispensers and water heaters in place. Outside the door, dozens of negative-pressure ambulances donated by Yutong Bus and Jiangling Group are ready to go.
When you think of it, someone will always provide it in time; if you don’t think of it, someone will provide it too.
Filing cabinets worth 200,000 yuan, 14 Luoyang furniture companies rushed to work overnight, and told you after delivery, “don’t pay, we donate.”
Eight thousand kg of winter melons, Shanghai greens, and cilantro were driven 300 kilometers by veteran Wang Hui from Baiji Town, Shenqiu, Henan, and delivered directly to the construction site on Chinese New Year’s Eve.
One ton of “Zizhong Blood Oranges” were carefully selected and sent by Huang Cheng, a peasant from Shuinan Town, Zizhong County, Sichuan, who is not rich.
The 400 benches were donated by Jin Chen, a Taobao shop owner who had been in business for less than a year, and could not bear to see the workers who rushed to work day and night could only sit on the ground.
There is no such thing as “infrastructural madness”, only the race against the clock. No need for “shock, applause”, just press on with clenched teeth, and never give up.
Hold your breath and endure the pain. The dragon in the village will offer you the hardest scales, even if he is already scarred.
Wuhan, hold on.
Background:
Those Outside of The Statistics: They Died from Common Pneumonia? 2020-02-02