From Bridges to Utility Poles, From China to the World: The Next Journey of a "Foundation Builder"

First Half: Measuring the Heights of Life with Precision

If life has a coordinate system, Meng Zheng's first three decades were an ascent skyward. As a bridge engineer, he was obsessed with load calculations and structural trade-offs. The tension of every cable, the bearing capacity of every pier??all bore on the safety of thousands. Back then, he firmly believed that an engineer's romance lay in "spanning"??spanning rivers, spanning chasms. Until fate threw him a sharp curve. An accident left him with a high-level spinal cord injury, pulling him from a hundred-meter-high bridge pier down to a wheelchair. His body was confined, but the span of his mind had never been wider. He once said, "Bridges taught me to revere deviation, but the earth taught me to embrace reality." While many lamented his fate, he saw another blue ocean??the power infrastructure components that underpin China's urban and rural lifelines yet rarely bask in the spotlight.

Midfield Turn: Planting a Backbone in the Soil

The founding of Qufu Songli Electric Power Engineering Co., Ltd. was not a glamorous pivot, but a pragmatic "landing." He infused the rigorous standardization processes of bridge engineering into the seemingly coarse production of cement poles. To outsiders, a utility pole is just a cylinder of steel and concrete, but in Meng Zheng's eyes, it is another kind of "bridge"??connecting power plants to millions of households and carrying the current of rural revitalization. He demanded that every pole's factory data be as traceable as bridge components. It is this very "obsession" that has allowed Songli Electric's products to take root in power grid upgrades across China and around the globe. In 2021, he was awarded the titles of "National Advanced Individual in Poverty Alleviation" and "Outstanding Communist Party Member of Shandong Province." To him, these honors are not laurels but crutches??supporting him to keep moving forward, toward places that need light even more.

Second Half: Becoming the "China Base" for Construction Sites Worldwide

In 2026, he gave himself a new label: foreign trade novice. From translating English product catalogs to adapting to overseas clients' factory-audit standards, he applied the same diligence he once used studying bridge blueprints to mastering international trade rules. His role has changed, but the underlying logic remains intact??once calculating bridge loads, now calculating international logistics costs; once revering millimeter deviations, now revering cultural differences and standard barriers. He says, "Entrepreneurship is not about doing business; it's about paving roads. In the past, I paved circuits to rural villages; now, I'm paving the Silk Road for Chinese manufacturing to the world. As long as the road is solidly built, a person in a wheelchair can still go very far." From engineer to entrepreneur, from domestic to overseas, Meng Zheng has always defined himself as a "foundation builder." Bridges, utility poles, even export containers??these are mere carriers. What remains unchanged is that silhouette, forever conquering new challenges and forever on the road.