Volunteers turn tide for stranded sailors
By Peng Yining | China Daily | Updated: 2016-06-07 08:17
The past decade has seen a steady rise in the number of unpaid search-and-rescue teams along China's coastline, providing a vital lifeline for vessels and mariners from all nations. Peng Yining reports.
In 1982, at the age of 15, Guo Wenbiao dived into a heavy sea and saved the life of his shipmate, an elderly fisherman who had fallen from the deck of their boat when it was hit by a large wave. That was the first of more than 700 lives Guo has saved as a fisherman and maritime rescue volunteer.
"I didn't have time to think of the danger," said the 49-year-old from Wenling city in Zhejiang province, East China. "If people fall into rough seas, they face certain death if help doesn't arrive promptly."
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