A nurse holds a one-yuan banknote that was in circulation in the 1960's, and featured a photo of Liang Jun driving a tractor that was taken in 1959 when she was just 29. Screenshot from Sina Weibo

Millions of netizens were saddened by news of the death of a woman whose iconic photograph showing her driving a tractor appeared on the one-yuan banknote in the 1960s.

Known as the "RMB Lady," Liang Jun, who was born in 1930, was said to be the first woman to be trained to driver a tractor in 1947.

"My mom passed away peacefully. She was really proud when people recognized her as China's first female tractor driver," Wang Yangbing, Liang's son told a local newspaper in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. 

Liang was born during a dark period prior to the founding of the People's Republic of China. She was sold as a child bride to a landlord family, but was finally freed in 1945, media reports.

Wang said his mother got interested in tractors after seeing a film featuring a female tractor driver. She then enrolled in a tractor driver training course, and was the only woman in the class. 

In 1959, when the first batch of domestically made tractors arrived in Heilongjiang, Liang was so excited that she jumped onto one, which was photographed by a journalist. The photo was later used on one side of China's third version of the one-yuan banknote. 

The topic "tractor lady on the one-yuan bill passes away" on Weibo received 300 million views. " So the girl on the one-yuan banknote really existed! R.I.P. granny!" wrote a netizen who added a candle emoji after his remarks. 

"What a sad news, I tip my hat to the great woman who devoted herself into building the country."

Global Times