China Scene: West

Boater who's rescued 40 people from river honored

A boatman who has rescued more than 40 people in the last two decades from a river in Yibin county, Sichuan province, was voted the "moral model" last week.

Tian Heming, 39, who transports people across the Yuanjia River in a ferry, has risked his life on more than one occasion to rescue some 40 people who fell off his boat in the past 20 years.