Reporter Guo Changxiu, Correspondent Zhu Yingjiang
Jiaozuo — In the early hours of June 21, two police officers from the Jiefang Police Station of Jiaozuo City Public Security Bureau scaled cliffs barehanded and, after four hours of effort, successfully rescued a family of five trapped atop an “isolated mountain” within Fengshan Park.
At around 8 p.m. on the 20th, the 110 emergency call center received a plea for help from a man surnamed Kou, who said that his family of five—two adults and three children—had gotten lost while hiking and were now stranded on a mountaintop. The 110 center immediately directed patrolling officers from the Traffic Patrol Brigade of Jiefang Police Station to the scene for a rescue operation.
Mr. Kou said they were trapped on a hilltop west of the Surgical Needle sculpture in Fengshan Park. However, after Officers Du Weihua and Qiu Haoliang climbed to the top, they did not see the family of five. Qiu Haoliang shouted toward nearby hills but got no response. “Is there any obvious landmark near you?” the officers asked Mr. Kou, asking him to describe the environment around his location in detail. “When we hiked up this afternoon, I went west from the location of the sculpture and felt like I climbed several hills,” Mr. Kou said.
The officers kept communicating with Mr. Kou, walking west along the Ring Road while shouting uphill and using their police flashlights to send out bright signals. “We’re here, we see the light!” At the end of the Ring Road, the officers finally spotted several faint figures on a hillside to the west. Looking up from the base of the mountain, there was no visible path leading to the summit.
In order to find a way up, the officers carefully felt their way forward, stepping uncertainly. It was already 10 p.m. by then. The path Officer Du Weihua spotted was barely a path at all—it more closely resembled a sheer cliff face, rising straight up. Without any safety equipment, Qiu Haoliang and Du Weihua climbed the cliff face one after the other, scaling it barehanded by grabbing onto wild grass to reach the top.
Seeing the police officers, Mr. Kou let out a long sigh of relief. The officers led the Kou family to a barely passable path that took them around to another mountain. After crossing two hilltops, they spotted an irrigation channel, and everyone followed it down to Honghe Village on Shangbazuojie Street in the Jiefang District. By that time, it was already the early hours of June 21.