A Chinese tourist who vanished after falling into the ocean reportedly survived seven terrifying days lost at sea by eating raw crabs with his bare hands.
Qin Jianping, 39, was walking along a cliff in Hainan Province in southern China on Wednesday, May 27, when he stepped on a fruit peel and slipped into the water around 11 p.m. local time, according to reports.
Jianping had little swimming experience, no life jacket and no phone when he was swept into the Qiongzhou Strait.
For nearly a week, he drifted helplessly at sea.
By the second day, he managed to climb onto a floating maritime buoy. But even from there, he could not get help. Passenger ferries reportedly passed by without seeing him.
He tried to swim back to shore, but the waves were too strong.
“For every meter I swam toward the land, the waves pushed me three or four meters back,” he told China Xinhua News.
He also told China Daily the sea was far more frightening than he expected.
“The sea is nothing like a swimming pool,” Jianping said. “I couldn’t touch the bottom, and huge waves kept pushing me farther out.”
“There was no way I could return,” he added.
As the days passed, Jianping became weaker and more desperate. With no food, he eventually began catching small crabs with his bare hands and eating them raw.
“I didn’t start eating crabs until the fifth day,” he said. “The crabs were only about the size of a little finger. I’d grab two or three at a time, rinse them in the sea water and toss them straight into my mouth.”
He estimated that he may have eaten “60, 70, maybe even 80 crabs” during the ordeal.
His only source of liquid reportedly came from small amounts of seawater and his own urine.
At night, temperatures dropped, and Jianping said he struggled to keep warm.
“Urine is a stream of warm heat,” he told China Daily. “I curled into a ball and tried to preserve every bit of warmth.”
Eventually, he became so weak that he began hallucinating.
By the time two fishermen found him on Tuesday, June 2, Jianping was barely conscious and about six miles from land.
“When we found him, he told us, ‘I think I’m dying,’” fisherman Fu Tingsan told the Global Times. “I told him, ‘You’re not going to die. You’ve run into fishermen. We’ll get you home.’”
Tingsan and fellow fisherman Zheng Shizhong found Jianping around 9 a.m. local time and used a wooden pole to help pull him to safety.
Jianping was so disoriented that he reportedly thought his friends had come to take him out for food.
The fishermen brought him onto their boat and rushed him toward shore so he could receive medical treatment.
Doctors said Jianping suffered severe sunburn, skin damage and infections. He also lost about 22 pounds during his week at sea.
Despite an increased heart rate and metabolic problems, doctors said his condition was improving.
His wife had already feared the worst.
“I had already accepted that my husband was gone,” she told China Daily. “I filled three bottles with seawater to take home as a memento.”
She was reportedly preparing to return home when she learned that her husband had been found alive.
Jianping is expected to remain hospitalized for about a week. Once he recovers, he plans to visit the fishermen who saved his life.
“No matter how dangerous or hopeless things get, if you keep a steady mind, you can get through it,” he said.
