[Photo provided to China Daily]

"My job was to throw coal into the stove－about 5 tons for one shift－and later I became the second driver on a team of three,"Wang Xiong recalls.

That period, he says, was the most tiring of his life. But he was fortunate enough to get a complete picture of all the jobs required to maintain trains.

A fan of literature since his youth, he reads extensively and is influenced greatly by the short stories of Wang Zengqi and French writer Emile Zola.

"I used to read at night using oil lamps. In the morning when people saw me, I had black ash stuck in my nostrils," says Wang Xiong.

He later worked with the railway publicity department, while writing novels and essays about railways and "Hanshui River Culture", centering in Xiangyang city in his home province, Hubei.

An English-language novel, entitled The Time-Honored Patina, is to be released soon.

Speaking of rail tragedies, Wang Xiong says he was at the scene of the tragic D301 train accident in Wenzhou in 2011,which killed 40 people.

"I stayed there for a month. I felt sad and touched. But I think when meeting with frustrations on the way to development, we should not give up," he says. "And we should convey what we've been doing to the world readers."

After the accident, Wang Xiong planned the book, though HSR was still a sensitive topic, connected with corruption cases involving railway officials responsible for the tragedy.

Famed writer Li Chunlei thinks Wang is the right person, and perhaps the only person,who can deal with the railway story properly, considering his experience, resources and training.

"I tried the topic myself around 2010, and I visited people and rode on the HSR, but it still was beyond my range, and I stopped," says Li.

"Wang writes with accuracy and warmth, and his book is subjective and well-grounded. His judgment and sensitivity have helped him deal with the many controversies and disputes related to the topic," says Li.

"He fills in a blank."

Contact the writer at meijia@chinadaily.com.cn