Gongbao chicken, the famous dish. [Photo/IC]

Looking back on Ding Baozhen's work, one can see that many of his ideas still have relevance. His ideas can be broken down into four parts:

1 A pioneer who focused on development: When he was governor of Shandong province, Ding started a machinery factory in Jinan to produce firearms, guns and gunpowder. He also set up a school to train young people in maths, physics, astronomy, irrigation and geography.

He also set up a printing house and recruited learned people to edit and print teaching materials for students.

Some of these materials can still be found in the state archives and national libraries.

He also invited famous scholars to be teachers and he often attended lectures to acquire knowledge.

In this way he helped to train a pool of talented young people who could focus on developing the nation.