Taxi driver hailed for his good deeds

Kindhearted Hubei cabbie saluted for 19 years of helping elderly people, migrant workers

Wang Huajun, a taxi driver from Yichang, Hubei province, has been on call for a special passenger for 18 years, and drives her anywhere she needs to go.

One day in March 2000, Wang saw a small woman on crutches and a white-haired elderly woman waiting for a taxi.

Wang stopped and helped the two into his cab－Yang Lihua, who has had rickets since she was 4 years old, was taking her mother to the hospital.

When they arrived, Wang didn't charge the women a fare. Instead, he gave Yang his number and told her to call him whenever she needed help, promising to take her wherever she wanted to go.

The cabbie kept his promise. For almost 18 years he has collected Yang or her family members when they needed. When he has time, he takes Yang for a drive to the suburbs.

He also runs errands for her, including withdrawing money from the bank and paying bills.

"For us, he is a family member now," Yang said, adding that through his kindness and perseverance, Wang gradually gained the family's trust.

Few people knew what Wang was doing until 2008, when Yang presented him with a silk banner－a formal way to express gratitude－at the taxi company where he worked.

While his colleagues didn't fully understand, Wang said he was just doing what he could to help those in need.

It is just one of the driver's many acts of kindness. In his 19 years of taxi driving, he has returned money he has found to passengers 12 times, amounting to a total of 350,000 yuan ($55,270).

Wang is a devoted volunteer, picking up students during the annual college entrance examination as well as passengers during the Spring Festival travel rush.

Due to his good reputation, in September 2014, Wang was made the director of a service center for about 28,000 migrant workers from Zigui county, Hubei, working in downtown Yichang.

On Dec 31, 2016, Jiang Congke, a migrant worker from Zigui fell to his death from the 33rd floor of a building at a construction site.

The worker's angry family rented three buses, carrying more than 100 people, and came to Yichang to demand an explanation from Jiang's employer.

Wang quickly stepped in to mediate. An agreement was reached between the two sides that the employer would give the worker's family 850,000 yuan in compensation.

Wang frequently organizes activities to encourage people to visit their elderly relatives in Zigui.

However, work at the migrant service center is voluntary, and Wang has to cover his own expenses.

Sometimes his voluntary work eats into the time he could be working, which made his wife, Deng Lingli, unhappy until she and her husband helped save a man's life. The pair came across a taxi driver who had been hit by a car and was bleeding, and they took him to the hospital.

The support and understanding of his family are important to Wang, who often takes his son to visit Yang to teach him to be a good person.