3 Beijing taxi drivers receive letter of thanks from White House

On November 23, three Beijing taxi drivers received an express mail from Washington. When they opened the envelope, they found three "letters of thanks" from the White House in recognition of their excellent service to U.S. President Obama and the White House team during the president's China visit.

The reporter learned that the three letters of thanks from the White House were sent to Wang Decheng, Zhou Yong and Yang Bo respectively. They all work as taxi drivers at the third branch of Shou Qi Group. During President Obama's visit to Beijing, they were transferred to the White House communications service.

3 Beijing taxi drivers receive letter of thanks from White House

"We also served the Italian government during the Olympic Games, but this task was completely different." Zhou said that they mostly stayed in a room, but if there was a task to do then they would drive the car. However on November 7, they came to the embassy and were told by the visiting U.S. communications service team that they could not leave and should be prepared to drive at any moment. They therefore rotated three 12-hour work shifts. Every day they ate in the car and if they needed to use the bathroom they had to calculate the time they would use.

The visiting U.S. team had an enormous amount of communications equipment which required a lot of people to transport. Although the three employees were drivers, they were also required to work as porters for their guests. They always helped the workers carry a large trunk weighing around 100 kilograms. Yang found performing overnight tasks the most difficult. On November 15, the eve of the U.S. team's visit to Beijing, he carried out three overnight tasks and didn't get a wink of sleep.

After the talks between U.S. President Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the visiting U.S team abruptly changed the itinerary; they wanted to go to the Great Wall first. As he had not prepared any food in advance Zhou, who was performing that day's mission, was hungry all day. After President Obama left, the U.S. team needed to return all the communications equipment but there was a mix up between two buildings. It was thanks to Zhou's help that they avoided making a mistake.

Certificate of Appreciation

Presented to Wang Decheng, Zhou Yong, Yang Bo

The Members of the White House Communications Agency wish to express our sincere appreciation for the outstanding manner in which you provided support to the President of the United States during his visit to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Your Unique abilities, coupled with your superb attitude and professionalism, enabled our Agency to provide critical communications for the President, the White House Staff and the United States Secret Service.

Steven M. Ramsey

Presidential Communications

Translated by LOTO