“I sprinted over there as fast as I could, hoping to catch the person before they fell,” Huang Chao said. There was a slope beneath the cliff covered in soil. He saw the climber fall onto the slope and then tumble down into the dry riverbed below.
Our newspaper, April 17 (Reporters: Liu Wei; Correspondents: Hu Kegang, Chen Guangxin) — A 12-year-old boy, after watching a TV program about rock climbing, went to a nearby mountain to imitate the activity and accidentally fell 40 meters from a cliff to the riverbed at the bottom. Huang Chao, a court clerk from Wulian County who witnessed the incident along with his girlfriend, helped rescue the injured boy. The boy’s family later presented them with a banner of thanks.
April 7 was a Saturday. Huang Chao, a clerk at the Wulian County Court, and his girlfriend went hiking near Luojiafengtai Village in Jietou Town. Not long after starting their hike, they spotted someone climbing on a cliff. When they were about fifty meters away from the cliff, the climber suddenly began to fall.
“I sprinted over there as fast as I could, hoping to catch the person before they fell,” Huang Chao said. There was a slope beneath the cliff covered in soil. He saw the climber fall onto the slope and then tumble down into the dry riverbed below.
Huang Chao ran over, leaped onto the dirt slope, and hurried down to the riverbed. The area was full of large rocks. He saw that the boy was bleeding from the face but conscious. The boy told Huang Chao that apart from a bad headache, he didn’t feel injured anywhere else. Huang Chao’s girlfriend called 120.
Then, the two carried the boy as they made their way back up the cliff. Huang Chao tore his pants and scraped his right arm and leg. They took the boy to the village clinic. Upon hearing the news, the boy’s grandfather arrived at the clinic and, together with the 120 ambulance, transported the boy to a nearby hospital.
After the rescue, Huang Chao received simple treatment at the clinic and then went home with his girlfriend. After the weekend, he returned to work. “I noticed Huang Chao limping and asked him about it. That’s how I found out he had saved a child,” one of Huang Chao’s colleagues said. On the 9th, the boy’s mother and grandfather presented a banner of gratitude to the Wulian County Court.
According to the boy’s mother, their family lives in Jietou Town, Wulian County. On Saturday, they had sent their 12-year-old son to stay with his grandfather in Luojiafengtai Village.
“There was a rock climbing show on TV, so he wanted to imitate it. He took a small iron hook and went to climb the East Mountain near the village,” the boy’s mother said.
While climbing, the boy used the hook to try to grab onto a crevice in the rocks, but it failed to hold and he fell. “He suffered four cuts on his head, which required several stitches. There were no major injuries elsewhere on his body,” the boy’s mother said. The boy has now been discharged from the hospital and is resting at home.
Huang Chao said that he had served five years in the military in Xinjiang and had just transitioned to working at the court last year. He is in good physical condition. “The boy’s name also has the character ‘Chao’ in it. Saving him must be fate. Now that I know he’s okay, I’m relieved — my minor injuries are nothing,” Huang Chao said.