Song Rui-xiong, a 60-year-old Formosa Plastics employee, went missing for 11 days while hiking on Mount Dawuzang in Laiyi Township. He was miraculously rescued unharmed on the 20th at the southern end of the riverbed in the old Qijia tribe of Chunya Township. He survived by drinking spring water, sucking on milkweed, and sleeping in rock crevices. Not only did he demonstrate astonishing willpower to survive, but his alleged encounter with ancestral spirits along the way also left people amazed. He said, "I prayed for the mountain god to show me a path," and later returned with his family to the trailhead to thank and pay respects to the mountain deity.
Song Rui-xiong noted that in his younger years, he had climbed over 20 major mountains with hiking groups. However, as a native of Pingtung, he had never hiked the local smaller peaks, so on the 10th, he decided to take a day trip to Mount Dawuzang with one day’s worth of food and water for a round trip. But on the way from Kuba Mountain to Mount Dawuzang, he felt something was off and turned back to descend. Unfortunately, he got severely lost on the way down.
He said that during his disorientation, he spotted Mount Dahan in Chunya Township and decided to use it as a landmark to find a way to survive. However, he repeatedly encountered cliffs and couldn’t find a path. The next day, while attempting to climb, he stepped on a loose rock and accidentally slipped, though he fortunately wasn’t injured. Still, being without water or food at that moment terrified him. To survive, he began searching for springs and sucking milkweed juice to boost his blood sugar.
But then a strange encounter happened. "What I saw... it must have been a person?" Song recalled. That night, he met an indigenous man and woman working quietly. He felt like he had seen saviors and urgently begged them for help, but they ignored him. Two hours later, he pleaded again for them to take him home, but the man and woman disappeared the moment he turned to grab his backpack. Then they reappeared on the opposite side of the stream. Seeing this, he followed them, but after shuttling back and forth three or four times, all efforts were in vain.
Song decided not to waste any more energy and chose to rest where he was, sleeping in a rock crevice. The next day, he unexpectedly spotted a rescue helicopter. He quickly tried to signal for help but was unsuccessful. He said, "I could see the rescuers, but they didn’t see me." However, he didn’t give up, believing someone would eventually come to save him, so he stayed put and waited.
Yet, Song waited three days and no one came. At that point, he shouted to the mountain, "Mountain god, I’m leaving now. Can you show me a path? I’ll repay you with good deeds." He then followed the waterway in search of an exit. On the 17th, he decided to head downhill. He said he had learned from the Discovery Channel about "descending a stream southward to survive." Sure enough, after walking for two days, he encountered a tribal hunter by the riverbed who rescued him.
After being rescued, Song expressed gratitude that everyone hadn’t given up on him, calling the entire journey magical. Someone told him that the indigenous man and woman might have been ancestral spirits, silently accompanying him all along. But he couldn’t explain such things clearly, so he chose to thank the mountain god through worship for watching over him. However, he emphasized that clean water was the life-saving elixir that kept him alive.
(China Times)