Firm gifts 3 truckloads of snow, drives 3,300km, costs US$28,000. Delighted children have snow fights and build snowmen for first time. — SCMP
A company in China spent 200,000 yuan (RM133,428 or US$28,000) transporting snow from the north to the south for children with special needs, warming the hearts on mainland social media.
Beijing Truck Home Information Technology, a truck service platform for commercial vehicles in northern China, gifted three truckloads of snow to the children of Guangzhou Xingzhi Chengzhang School.
Carrying 80 cubic metres of snow, the fleet spent four days driving 3,300km from the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China to Guangdong in the southeastern part of the country.
In the viral video, a group of people is seen shovelling snow into the trucks, then the fleet attaches banners with the message, “Let’s have a snow fight? Please wait for me, my friends in the south”, on the trucks.
“We’re giving the snow to a special school in the south, giving a chance for children to experience the fun of snow fighting and making snowmen,” an employee said.
“It’s unprecedented,” a worker shovelling snow said.
“I haven’t seen any case of transporting snow to the south,” another said.
The company came up with the idea when they were planning to test their new models of cold-chain trucks on a long-haul journey.
“Although the snow melts quickly, we do hope it will bring little moments of happiness to the children,” another employee said.
The fleet set off on January 28, driving on motorways that passed through the provinces of Jilin, Henan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, and finally arriving at the school on the evening of January 31.
The company took a photo of the children waving to the fleet across a fence as they arrived, and the next morning, the children, their parents, and the teachers had fun with the snow.
A teacher, surnamed Xiao, said that many of their children with conditions such as autism or who have intellectual or learning disabilities are often unable to travel to Harbin.
“For many of the children, it was the first time they had seen snow. They had a great time,” Xiao said.
The story has touched many people on mainland social media platforms.
“What the fleet transported was not snow, but love,” said one online observer.
“The snow may be cold, but everyone’s heart has completely melted,” another said.
Heartwarming stories of people helping children with special needs are often shared on mainland social media.
One such story was about a mother in eastern China who resigned from her job and sold her home to set up a school for her autistic son and hundreds of other children with the same condition.
Another was about a teacher who dedicated his retirement and life savings creating a free education system for disabled students in a school in Hebei province in northern China. – South China Morning Post
