China Scene: South

Farmer will not do away with pigs that saved life

A farmer in Cenxi, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has refused to sell or even slaughter two pigs that, he claims, saved his life more than 12 years ago.

Li Zhenwei, 52, a resident of the city's Shichuang village, said during a storm in 1997, he woke up in the middle of the night and stepped out of his house because the pigs were howling. "Within seconds my entire house collapsed. I probably would have died had it not been for the pigs," he said.