Colonel turns into one-man rescue army

Colonel Zheng Qiang and his brothers-in-arms have saved 7,000 people in Beichuan county since the May 12 quake. But he could not save his 29 relatives who lived there.

A member of the Qiang ethnic minority, the 30-plus director of an armed forces department in Mianyang city, 73 km south of Beichuan county, has worked day and night to search for survivors in the rubble.

He has kept himself busy to forget the sorrow, at least temporarily, of losing so many of his beloved ones.