Model worker

Song is a role model for female officials and her achievement can match her male peers. Since she became a civil servant in 1971, Song has adopted the method of doing sound research before making decision. She attaches great importance to learning from people at the grassroots.

"The people have boundless wisdom. By interacting with them, we can learn what they need and learn from their wisdom. And our policy will be more people-friendly," Song said.

"Song spent at least half of a year in rural areas every year," said Du Yuguang, who once worked as Song's driver, and witnessed her interaction with the local people in the rural areas. He said that Qinghai Province is located on Qianghai-Tibet Plateau, where the weather is harsh and living conditions are tough. "She lived in a shabby one-storey house with only a bed and a stove, but she never complained and insisted on working," Du recalled in a report on people.com.cn.  

Song's rigorous working style and laborious efforts brought huge changes to Qinghai Province. During the five years when she was in office, the GDP of the province increased 116 percent, from 46.6 billion yuan ($7 billion) in 2004 to 108.13 billion yuan ($16 billion) in 2009.  

Family and career

"The Chinese traditional ideas that women should take care of the home and be responsible for the children are the main obstacles for them to participate in politics," Tan Lin, Director of Women's Studies Institute of China, told ChinAfrica. 

For Song, family was never an obstacle as she always managed to juggle looking after her family and handling her career.

"I am aware that as a woman, I have more responsibilities than men to the family. I am a wife, a mother, and a daughter. Meanwhile, I am a civil servant in society, so when serving the people whole-heartedly, I also perform the obligation of an ordinary female," Song said in an interview with China Central Television.

In her neighbors' eyes, Song is a typical Chinese dutiful wife. "I never saw Song quarrel with her husband. She personally brought up her daughter and is also dutiful to her parents-in-law," Li Baoshan, one of her neighbors, told Times Weekly.  Even when she became the governor of Qinghai Province, she kept on doing her own housework.