Annual reports tend to be dry. But not the one released by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) on Thursday.
It is full of pictures - photographs of technicians climbing power towers damaged by snow storms; workers carrying communications equipment suspended from bamboo poles on their shoulders as they trudge through deep snow; blue-collar workers rushing a colleague on a makeshift stretcher to a plane in an earthquake-battered town, and fireworks depicting the Olympic rings at the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing.
It is also full of stories - tales of snowbound workers setting foot for the first time on luxurious pleasure boats sent by the Sinotrans Group to bring them home; pigs being imported and sold at half price by Cofco Corp to ensure storm-hit families could enjoy a New Year feast; the Three Gorges Project Corp increasing water outflows to ensure smooth traffic downstream so that more coal could be delivered...
More than 2,500 workers from China Railway Group risking their lives to get earthquake-twisted track in Sichuan back to normal within 15 hours; 14 helicopters from the CNOOC group heading for the ruined towns instead of offshore oil platforms; Air China, China Eastern Airlines Corp and China Southern Airlines saving 19,000 people from the ruins with 592 extra flights...
The State Grid Corp of China boosting its capacity by 33 per cent at a cost of 23.9 billion yuan (HK$27.12 billion) to ensure against blackouts during the Olympic Games; China Mobile, CNOOC and four other companies guaranteeing jobs for members of the Olympic Organising Committee after the games.
These are not the sort of things you will find in the reports of other state asset management arms.