Wenchuan Earthquake: 10 years on

Hu Yijing China Plus Published: 2018-05-12 08:43:52
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Peng Guohua

Wenchuan Earthquake: 10 years on

Photo at the top shows Peng Guohua being rescued on Monday, May 19, 2008, after he was buried in a mine for over 170 hours. Photo at the bottom shows Peng being interviewed by the press in Mianyang, Sichuan Province, on Friday, May 4, 2018. [Photo: China Plus]

Peng Guohua was ten meters underground in a mine near Jushui Township in Mianyang when the earthquake struck.

The mine Peng was in caved in, sealing him inside. 

The 37-year-old survived with nothing but a roll of clean toilet paper and some dripping rainwater, although at one point he was so desperately thirty he had to drink his own urine.

He was rescued after 172 hours later, on May 19, 2008.

Peng's survival for over a week trapped underground was called "a miracle of life."

After the quake, he stopped working as a miner. Instead, over the last decade he has become a skillful bricklayer. His family also runs a small shop and owns over 30 mu (about 2 hectares) of trees.

Peng cherishes the people who saved his life. 

Early last month, Peng and his wife made a trip to Shanghai to thank the medical team that treated him. The couple prepared honey and over 100 pairs of insoles as gifts to doctors and nurses.

Wenchuan Earthquake: 10 years on

Peng and his wife take a group photo with a doctor and a nurse who treated Peng, in this photo taken on Monday, April 9, 2018, in Shanghai. [Photo: 81.cn]

"With the Shanghai trip I realized a dream I had for many years. I hope that my benefactors could come back to my home, and see the great changes that have taken place in my hometown over the years," Peng told journalists with cqnews.net.

Wenchuan Earthquake: 10 years on

Peng's wife gives hand-made insoles to the medical team that saved her husband's life, in this photo taken Monday, April 9, 2018, in Shanghai. [Photo: 81.cn]

In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Peng, who is now in his fifties, says the experience of the earthquake did not traumatize him. He says, instead, it made him more brave. 

"We should look forward instead of looking back," said Peng.

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