Rural postal worker dedicated to delivery

Carrier has spent 23 years sailing reservoir, climbing mountains to deliver mail to villagers in Hebei province

Liu Baochao, a mail carrier in Chengde, North China's Hebei province, has delivered letters, newspapers and other items for more than two decades, an arduous task shunned by previous postal workers. Liu, 54, started delivering mail to residents living around the Panjiakou Reservoir in the Kuancheng Manchu autonomous county in 1999.

The reservoir, which covers an area exceeding 6,500 hectares, was created in 1985 on the upper reaches of the Luanhe River, according to a report by Xinhua Daily Telegraph.

Since then, roads connecting villages around the reservoir with the outside world have been covered by water, so most people use boats to travel, especially villagers in Dushigou town.