President Xi Jinping meets Russian experts and their family members in Moscow in May 2015. Elena Silina (first from right, front row), daughter of the Russian engineer Konstantin Silin. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In 1948, the People's Liberation Army in Northeast China was hampered by damaged bridges when trying to transport supplies.

Silin was then sent to China by the Soviet Union to help to build the Second Songhua River Bridge.

With the bridge completed, the army went across the river and liberated the whole northeast.

In 1949, Silin came to China again as a consultant to the Railways Ministry (now the National Railway Administration). He worked on the construction of bridges in Chengdu and Chongqing and the west section of the Longhai and Lanzhou-to-Xinjiang railways.

After returning home in November 1957, Silin worked to build and sustain friendship between China and his native land.