Born in Beijing in 1989, Li Meng has worked as a pump technician at the sanitation center in Dongcheng district for 11 years, and says she will continue to do so to contribute to public welfare.

Li was elected as a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last year. Upon learning the news, she shared her excitement and feelings with her family and colleagues.

"I was so excited when I entered the Great Hall of the People as a delegate again," she said. "It was a great honor as well as a duty to speak for sanitation workers who trust and rely on me, and I will do everything I can to tell the public more about the sanitation sector."

In 2017, Li was recommended as a delegate to the 19th CPC National Congress. A year later, she won the National May Day Labor Medal, which is a great honor for workers in China.

Being a young woman, people might wonder about Li's choice to work in sanitation as it is often associated with being dirty and smelly. But Li doesn't care about any of that.

"Even though the work was indeed a bit challenging for me when I started more than a decade ago, I never thought about giving up," she said. "It's meaningful work because people need it. No matter how smelly it is, there have to be some people willing to do the job."

After lots of practice and learning from experienced colleagues, Li gradually developed the necessary skills of the job and found a sense of achievement.

She works at the same station where Shi Chuanxiang, a first-generation model worker, once worked in the 1950s. Her team has inherited the "Shi Chuanxiang spirit", which means they are "willing to sacrifice for decades to ensure the environment is sanitary".

Shi, who was a night-soil collector, was received by then Chinese president Liu Shaoqi at the Great Hall of the People to be honored for his social contribution to the capital on Oct 26, 1959.

Every job is significant, including sanitation, Li said. During the epidemic, many people were afraid of using public toilets, worrying they would become infected. Li and her colleagues disinfected public toilets more frequently to provide residents with a clean and safe environment.

"People need us, and feeling that we are needed makes us happy."

"In addition, we need to be able to tell their stories in understandable and acceptable language. Only in this way can we communicate with and learn from each other," Li said.

Duan Ling contributed to this story.