A hiker went missing for 10 days on Mt. Nanhu in Yushan; survived by eating grass roots and drinking stream water before being rescued

A 60-year-old employee surnamed Song from Formosa Plastics went hiking alone in Pingtung on the 10th and lost contact. Despite days of search efforts by local residents and emergency responders, he was nowhere to be found. This morning, he appeared unharmed and was spotted by locals in the riverbed of Qijia Stream at the border between Laiyi Township and Chunya Township. He said he had been surviving by chewing on wild grass roots and drinking stream water, prompting the village chief to call it a miracle and credit it entirely to ancestral spirits.

The man surnamed Song drove to Pingtung for a hike on the 10th and did not return home that night. His family reported him missing to the fire department, which launched a search. Friends and relatives also joined the effort, looking for him at Mt. Lidishan in Chunya Township, Mt. Liding in Pingtung, and the trailhead of Mt. Nanhu, but found no trace. During the search, a Paiwan indigenous helper reportedly slipped and was injured.

The man told rescuers that he had been climbing Da Wuzang Mountain in Nanhé Village, Laiyi Township. He left his car at the trailhead but got lost shortly after starting the hike. He wandered around trying to find a way out but only had one day’s worth of food. After running out, he survived by drinking stream water and chewing on sweet-tasting wild grass roots to maintain his strength. On the third day of his disappearance, he spotted rescue workers but waved his hat and shouted without being noticed. With his phone dead, he continued searching for an exit on his own.

Eventually, he decided to follow the stream valley downhill until he was unexpectedly spotted by a Laiyi resident who was working in the mountains near the riverbed of Qijia Stream at the border between Laiyi Township and Chunya Township. He was immediately brought down the mountain. The man was still conscious, in good physical and mental condition, and showed no obvious external injuries, leaving emergency responders calling it a miracle. Chen Wenshan, the village chief of Nanhé Village in Laiyi Township, also said afterward that it was clearly the work of ancestral spirits.