Civilians to the rescue

But maybe not for much longer as teams struggle for funding

Twenty-one members of the Peking University Mountaineering Association (PUMA) were stranded while hiking on Xiaowutai Mountain, 180 km from downtown Beijing, on Feb 28. They were finally rescued on March 1 by 15 members of the Lantian rescue team and another five members of PUMA.

But stranded hikers may not be as lucky in the future, with civilian-run rescue teams, such as Lantian, struggling to find enough funding to survive.