'I will not give up': Lost wife leads man, 72, on epic search

Some of the notices he posted along his routes have faded and rubbed off because of the longtime exposure to the weather, so Wang Yuming would walk there once again to replace them with new ones.

According to the report, when Wang Yuming, now a retired soldier, fought on the battlefield in August 1970, it was only three months after he and his wife got married. They wrote to each other for quite a long time. In the first 10 years of their marriage, Yan Baoxia raised their two children on her own in their hometown - Tangshan in Hebei province. During a visit to his family in 1976, they experienced the earthquake and Yan Baoxia got injured to save him. Then they came to Huixian and settled down there. To meet their family expenses, Yan always worked several jobs.

After going through all this, Wang felt he owed his wife a lot. "We felt so connected to each other."

While Wang was searching for his wife, people who learned about his story were deeply touched and offered their help to him. The local government in Huixian also raised nearly 10,000 yuan for him. Some people would even help him by posting the search notices.

"I will not give up until I find her," Wang said.