Recently, Jinan was hit by heavy snow. On the evening of the 20th, amid the snowstorm, a couple was driving back to Jinan from Tai’an when their vehicle got stuck on the mountain loop road of Yaoxiang Forest Park. After receiving the distress call, police officers hiked up the mountain to rescue them. By the time the couple returned to Jinan, it was already 4:30 a.m. on the 21st.
The couple took a wrong turn on their way back to Jinan and got stranded in Yaoxiang Forest Park
On the afternoon of January 20, Mr. Zeng and his wife were driving their Volkswagen Tiguan SUV back to Jinan from Tai’an. Due to the heavy snow, they decided against taking the highway, fearing accidents, and opted for Provincial Highway 103 instead. However, they accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up on the mountain loop road of Yaoxiang Forest Park.
Around 6 p.m., Mr. Zeng’s car got stuck in a snowdrift by the roadside. He and his wife tried to push the vehicle out of the snow but failed.
“I thought my car was an SUV with four-wheel drive, so getting out shouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t think I needed to call the police,” Mr. Zeng later told reporters. “By around 8 p.m., when I felt I couldn’t get the car out myself, I called my brother-in-law to come and help drive it out.”
Brother-in-law comes to the rescue, but also gets stuck on the road
“I received a call from my brother-in-law after 8 p.m. saying they were stuck on the mountain in Yaoxiang Park,” said Mr. Guo. After getting the call, he drove to Yaoxiang with two friends, planning to rescue his sister and her husband.
“Unexpectedly, when we reached the uphill section, we managed to drive part of the way before the car couldn’t go any further,” Mr. Guo said, sounding rather helpless. He never expected that he, who had come to rescue others, would also need to be rescued.
After failing to push the car with his friends, and with no other options left, Mr. Guo called 110 for police assistance around 10 p.m.
Two police officers couldn't drive up the slope, so they hiked up the mountain to conduct the rescue
After 10 p.m., officers Zhang Qing and Ren Wei from Ga’er Police Station in Licheng District, Jinan, received a call from the city’s 110 command center reporting that people were stranded and needed help near Shihui’gou Village.
After receiving the call, the two drove their police car to the location, but their vehicle couldn’t make it up the slope. They then parked the car and hiked up the mountain to carry out the rescue.
Around 11 p.m., they arrived near Shihui’gou Village and found Mr. Guo and others who had asked for help. That’s when they learned there was another vehicle stuck on the mountain loop road of Yaoxiang Forest Park.
The location where Mr. and Mrs. Zeng were stranded was within Tai’an, already outside the jurisdiction of Ga’er Police Station. But considering that the stranded individuals had been on the mountain for hours, with no water or food in their vehicle, and with other police stations being farther away and less accessible, the two officers decided to hike up the mountain with Mr. Guo and one other person, leaving one officer to watch the car.
After hiking for over two hours, around 1:20 a.m. on the 21st, the officers finally reached the location where the vehicle was stuck. By that time, Mr. and Mrs. Zeng in the car were both thirsty and hungry.
Working together, the six of them finally managed to get the vehicle out of the snowdrift. They then carefully drove down the mountain loop road. They arrived back in Jinan at 4:30 a.m. on the 21st.
Police ate snow to quench their thirst, rescued individuals expressed deep gratitude
After the rescue, the two officers did not publicize their heroic deeds but treated the incident as a small matter and quickly put it behind them.
On the afternoon of the 23rd, while browsing public feedback on the Jinan Public Security Bureau’s People’s Livelihood Policing Platform, a reporter came across the story of the officers’ good deed.
The reporter contacted the person in charge of the platform, who said that if the reporter wanted to conduct an interview, they could help arrange contact with the relevant personnel.
On the afternoon of the 23rd, the reporter contacted Mr. Guo, who first expressed his gratitude to the police officers. He mentioned that Mr. Zeng was planning to present the officers with a banner of appreciation. Reflecting on the incident, Mr. Guo’s strongest memory was how thirsty he and the two officers and a friend were while climbing the mountain to help. The officers simply put snow in their mouths to quench their thirst. Mr. Guo recalled that the snow was heavy and deep, with some areas having knee-high drifts, making the path difficult to navigate. The four of them had to carefully make their way up step by step in the pitch-dark, snowy night. Once they reached the scene, they laid large car-washing cloths under the wheels and slowly dug the vehicle out of the snow. On the way down, the six of them crammed into one car, and Mr. Guo carefully drove them down the mountain.
Mr. Zeng said that he hadn’t expected to get stranded on the way home. If it weren’t for the officers hiking up the mountain through the snow that night, he and his wife would have had to spend the entire night on the mountain. He expressed immense gratitude toward the officers. Mr. Zeng noted that he is currently away but will definitely present a banner to the two officers who hiked up the mountain to rescue them once he returns to Jinan.