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One of the forces of the People’s Liberation Army in its Eastern Theater Command has a special operations unit. Nothing special about that you might think but just three years ago, it was only an ordinary infantry unit. CCTV’s reporter visited the special ops unit to find out how they made the transformation in such a short period of time.

For Cao Yang, the very first thing to do before shooting is not aiming at the target, but rehearsing in his mind.

"We invented a new way of training long distance snipes. Before shooting, we need to sense quickly the temperature and the wind speed at the shooting spot. We also take into consideration those index of last training, to correct our aim before we pull the trigger," said Cao Yang.

Being a soldier is Cao Yang’s passion, and a member of special operations force, his dream. He never thought he'd have the chance until three years ago.

"The most impressive moment after I joined the army so far is when I touched the large diameter sniper rifle for the first time. I was so excited. I used to be like a piece of white paper, with nothing professional on it. But now, I am well trained, and I am very proud," said Cao Yang.

Cao Yang is just one of the more than 300 soldiers who saw the infantry brigade they used to serve transformed into a special operations force in 2013.

It's part of China's military reforms to build up a stronger land force.

It's hard to believe that an ordinary infantry unit managed to transform into a special ops force in just 3 years. What's even surprising is that they did not have any specific training methods to rely on. So the question is: how did they do it?

Normally, three years are far from enough to build a competitive special operations force, not mentioning the lack of equipment, professionals, and experience.

"To cope with these problems, we sent many of our military officers to other special force brigades to learn, and invited military experts to come to give us lectures. We also sent our soldiers to participate in special force competitions where they can make great progress by exchanging ideas with other professionals," said Tang Kaixi, political commissar, special ops brigade, 12th Army.

And that worked.

All soldiers in the brigade are now required and able to master 7 core skills, including diving, sniping, blasting, fighting, and detecting. Some of them won many awards in national military competitions.

He now lives his long-time dream of becoming a special force. And he wants to go on as a military officer to help make the brigade even better.