Since Chen Si started patrolling for suicide jumpers on Nanjing's Yangtze River Bridge some 10 months ago, he has seen three people willfully leap to their death.
"I saw one young woman whose body was curled up like a baby's and she was holding her head in her arms as she jumped. I grieved for her for quite a long time," Chen said quietly.
Donning a well-worn baseball cap and large black sunglasses to protect himself from the scorching summer temperatures that can hit 50?C on the bridge, the self-appointed volunteer arrives every weekend at 8am.
PHOTO: AFP
He stays until sunset and if he's lucky no one will try to take their lives, but that is almost never the case.
"Women are easier to deal with," said Chen, his eye scanning the bridge's expansive 4,589m that cross China's mightiest river.
"You can talk to them and try and get them to cry out their pain. The men, I usually tackle them because they seldom listen and they can be very strong," he said, adding that once one determined male almost took him over the edge.
Although no one in this river-port city refers to it as the "suicide bridge," the name would be apt. Every Saturday and Sunday in this bustling eastern metropolis of six million, three hours by train from Shanghai, somebody comes here to die.
The bridge was completed in 1968 and was celebrated as a feat of Chinese engineering when it won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest highway and railway bridge. Today it has more notoriety for being a sure-fire place to kill oneself.
With a drop of 100m to the river below, the nine-second fall from the top will shatter human bones, while the cold yellow waters of the Yangtze are sure to do the rest.
For Chen, the bridge's length means it is impossible to safeguard both sides, so if someone is preparing to go over the chest-high fence on the north end there is nothing the stocky and leather-tanned 37-year-old can do.
Fortunately, most approach from the south, and among the din of traffic exhaust fumes, are then met by a yellow flag and an accompanying billboard which pleas with visitors and the suicidal alike to give life one more chance.
It reads: "Maybe you feel tired, maybe you think this is the end of the world, or maybe you have been wronged -- but life comes only once, so please give yourself one more chance because tomorrow the sun will bring something new."
During his time as the bridge's Good Samaritan, Chen has stopped 40 people from jumping, although he recognizes he cannot get to everyone.
"I've only got a pair of hands, but if I can save one life then that's one life," Chen said.
He says he does what he does simply because he feels compelled to help, drawn to the bridge after noticing a growing number of suicides in the local media.
"Now, almost 24 hours a day, I get telephone calls from people all over the country, telling me that they want to die and asking for help," he said.
At the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge over 1,000 people in total, or an average of 27 people a year, are estimated to have intentionally plunged to their deaths.
In China, home to a fifth of the world's population, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The country has never imbued suicide with the same sinful opprobrium seen in the West, but instead often embraced it as a way of preserving honor and proving moral purity.
According to statistics published in official media last November, China accounts for a quarter of the globe's suicides with 280,000 people killing themselves every year.
Suicide is the leading cause of death in the 15-34 age bracket in China, the only country in the world where the rate for females is higher than for males. Doctors have been unable to explain why mainland Chinese females are almost three times more likely to try to take their lives than males, although one explanation may lie in cultural tradition, they say.
Chen says it is data like this that has driven him to the bridge to help, brushing off accusations that he is only seeking money and fame.
"Someone had to take action," said the small shop owner who has seen his share of hardship after his mother abandoned him at the age of six.
"All I want to do is to give those desperate people some hope."
Asked how long he would keep up his vigil, the father of one replied: "Until I can't take it any longer."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in