Friday, March 13, 2009

Man walks 34 days home after money stolen

BEIJING, March 10 (Chinese media) -- A man walked 34 days

home to join his 70-year-old mother for the Lunar New Year celebrations after

his money was stolen in a railway station, the Dahe Daily newspaper reported

Tuesday.



Li Haitao, 30, a migrant worker from central China's

Henan Province, walked more than 800 kilometers from Beijing to Zhengzhou

between Feb. 3 to March 9 to spend the Spring Festival with his mother, said the

newspaper.

It was surely too late as the Spring Festival, the

most important occasion in China for family reunions, fell between Jan.25 and

Feb. 9.

Li found his 2,000 yuan (292 U.S. dollars) in his

pocket had been stolen before he paid for a ticket on Jan. 21 at the railway

station of Baotou in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where he

worked as a welder, said the paper.

His identity card, electrician's certificate and

mobile phone were also stolen. He called the police but the police did not catch

the thief, reported Henan Business News, another major newspaper in the

provincial capital of Zhengzhou.

Henan Business News reported the penniless man was

then sent toa local rescue station. Li was given a ticket to Beijing on Feb. 1.

"I arrived in Beijing on Feb. 2. The police also sent

me to the rescue station," he said. "But they only provide food and

accommodation," it reported him as saying.

After staying in the rescue station for a day, Li

chose to walk home, and picked up and sold empty mineral water bottles on the

way in order to get money to eat. He slept during the day because it was too

cold to sleep at night with only a blanket in the open air, reported Orient

Today, another newspaper in the capital.

He arrived in the provincial capital Zhengzhou at 8

a.m. Monday morning when the police found the unkempt man with a pair of

worn-out shoes, said Orient Today.

The police gave him the money to buy a ticket home.

Coincidentally, he met a bus to Xinmi City and the driver game him a free ride

after hearing his story, the newspaper reported.

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