A Hiker Went Missing on Mid-Autumn Day. Rescuers Found Him Five Days Later
A holiday hike in eastern China ended in tragedy this week, and the details have turned a routine safety warning into one of the country’s most-shared travel stories.
The man, identified by authorities only by the surname Wang, set out on September 25 — Mid-Autumn Festival day, a major family holiday in China — to climb Kaolao Mountain in Cixi, a coastal city in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai. He was with relatives. At some point on the descent they split up and agreed to meet later. Wang never arrived.
That evening, around 7:30 pm, a local volunteer rescue team received the call. What followed was five days of searching across steep, wooded terrain. On September 30, at about 3:30 pm, searchers found Wang near the eastern side of the mountain. He was confirmed dead. The Cixi emergency management bureau announced the outcome in an official notice, thanking the rescue teams and asking the public to take outdoor safety seriously.
One detail from the case has stayed with readers. Chat records shared by the family show that before losing contact, Wang sent several location pins to relatives and friends. In China, dropping a pin in a group chat is such an ordinary gesture — the digital equivalent of saying “I’m here” — that its failure to bring help in time has made the story feel personal to many.
Kaolao Mountain is not a famous peak. It is a modest hill in a prosperous part of Zhejiang, the kind of place locals visit for a few hours of autumn air. That ordinariness is part of why the case resonates. Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday that follows create one of China’s biggest travel windows, and millions of people head for trails, scenic areas and small mountains near home.
Search-and-rescue volunteers in the region say the pattern in such cases is consistent: hikers separate from companions, underestimate how quickly daylight fades in autumn, and rely on phone batteries that drain faster in cold air and weak signal. Splitting up on a descent is especially risky, because downhill routes often branch and look alike from above.
The practical advice from rescue teams is unglamorous. Stay together. Tell someone your route and expected return time. Carry a charged power bank and a light layer. If you do become lost, stop moving, share your location, and stay put rather than pushing on through darkness.
Wang’s family had done one thing right — they had his location pins, and they called for help quickly. It still was not enough. The search covered days, not hours, and the mountain’s dense cover made a visual fix difficult even with coordinates.
As the October holiday crowds spread out across China’s hills and trails, the Cixi notice reads less like a formality and more like a plea. Autumn is the best season for hiking in much of the country. It is also the season when the gap between a pleasant afternoon walk and an emergency is measured in minutes and a single wrong turn.