Zhou Hang graduated from Ohio State in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree. Now he is at the center of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan and was a part of the Leishenshan and Fangcang Hospitals construction.

Hang is the deputy director of the assets at China International Marine Containers and worked with China Construction Third Engineering Bureau, the hospital contractor, and the Central South Design Institute, which completed the engineering, procurement and construction for the hospitals.

Weather was a major issue in the beginning of the construction phase.

“Everyone was motivated and wanted to build the hospital as soon as possible, but it continued to rain for many days,” Hand said. “If it kept raining during the construction of the infrastructure, the large machinery would not be able to perform and the foundation work such as excavation and concrete placement would be greatly affected.”

Hang said manpower, limited time and demanding efficiency were also issues while the hospitals were being built.

“Although many companies sent a lot of manpower to support the construction, it was during a holiday period,” Hang said. “We were always helping to find welders, masons and installers. At the site, each department, unit and team worked together, and in order to speed up the construction, coordination issues often rose up. The workload was heavy, and the many staff members are very tired. Quite a few staff members stayed up 24 hours for two to three days.” 

While everyone knows the virus is dangerous and protection materials are scarce, Hang said everyone’s enthusiasm for constructing the hospitals were high.

“Everyone was very positive, no matter how busy or tired,” Hang said. “Part of our work requires volunteers to go to various communities to help with investigations. As soon as the volunteer list was posted, everyone rushed to sign up. If I were to explain it in Wuhan dialect for this phenomenon, it would be BUTANGTIAO, meaning intrepid and not afraid.”