By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-21 09:17

To preserve energy, he would shout for help every three hours. His right hand was bruised and bloody. He said he purposely harmed it so the pain would prevent him from dozing off.

By May 14, many people across the country had learned of his fate.

The website Sina began mobilizing a rescue campaign.

Li had no idea best-selling author Han Han was among those rushing to Sichuan to look for him. Postings of sympathy were plastered all over the Internet.

Eventually, a signal from Li's cell phone was detected.

The signal was so weak, his phone was unable to receive or transmit calls or text messages. But, the information was passed on to a local radio station that was able to notify rescue teams in the area.

In the end, it was a Chengdu-based air force team that finally rescued Li.

Eerily enough, Li had served in the PLA air force for 21 years. It was where he first took up writing.

Arduous journey to safety

Li was staying on the fourth floor of the resort. The place, set in a quiet locale, was not widely familiar, as it was a new business that had not yet officially opened.

The building, situated on a cliff-side, was completely crushed and seriously shifted by the quake.

Li's room was left dangling in the air. One more aftershock could have rocketed the resort dozens of meters down the canyon below.

The first person who heard Li's cry for help was a staff member at the resort. He did not have enough strength to remove all the rubble, so he trekked for a day - over landslides to seek help from Li's friend, who had invited him to the one-man writing camp.

Li's friend, Yi Yanduan, and another volunteer walked another day to reach Li. When they arrived, the two of them used hammers to begin chipping away at the rubble. They worked through the night, but there was little success.

Yi went to search for more help and met a unit of air force soldiers. The soldiers were very brave and very efficient.

At the risk of tumbling over the precipice, they climbed atop the rubble and started digging.

Li cooperated by telling them where he was. They cracked through two ceilings. But, every time they broke the cement rubble, grit and gravel would fall onto Li. The weight of the debris crushed down on him, making it hard to breathe.

"My throat was full of phlegm. I had to cough constantly. My phlegm was turning thicker and thicker," Li recalled.

At one point, the soldiers even had to climb into the hole they had cracked to remove more debris before they could get to Li.

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