Chinese man rescues four, drifts on sea for 12 hours

A young man from Xinyang city of Henan province was applauded by Chinese netizens for his bravery and amazing acts of kindness when two tour boats capsized off Phuket in southern Thailand on Thursday afternoon, Sina.com reported.

Zhang Haofeng and his fiancée Meng Ying were on their pre-marriage trip aboard one of the boats. According to Meng and other witnesses, when the boat started sinking, Zhang, who's a good swimmer, first escorted Meng to a lifeboat; then he gave his surfboard to an elderly couple and pushed them with all his strength to the lifeboat. But he himself could not get on the lifeboat as it was fully loaded.

He managed to survive on the sea thanks to a floating ball he found later. While he was drifting, he saved another man from drowning by pulling him to the floating ball and they drifted together. After floating on the sea for 12 hours, they arrived at an island the next morning and were rescued by a fishing boat.

During his ordeal he was bitten by many jellyfishes and rushed to local hospital in Thailand.