On June 13 at two in the afternoon, 5 tourists were climbing the Jiankou Great Wall (Xizhazi Village, Yanxi town, Huairou District) when they were struck by lightning: a newlywed couple plunged to their deaths off the cliff; the other three were left with minor injuries. According to reports, the female victim was a grad student doing her masters at Beijing University, and the other 4 were civil employees of the State Intellectual Property Bureau.

Photo: gcpnews.com

The incident occurred at the steepest and most dangerous section of the Jiankou Great Wall, known more commonly as 'Eagle Flies Facing Upward' but dubbed 'Slithering Against the Wall As You Go' by the locals because the paths are only 1 meter wide.

Mr. Ji, a tourist at the scene, said that he and his friends were also making their climb up this part of the Great Wall when the downpour started, so they decided to take cover and wait out the rain in a beacon tower. They could hear loud thundering one after another right outside while long slashes of lightning flared all around. He then saw, less than 200 meters away, that there were still 5 people trudging up the steep 'Eagle Flies Facing Upward' climb. With a loud boom, a flash of red light exploded between the first 3 hikers and the others straggling behind on the mountain club; the couple fell 30 meters off the cliff, and the other 3 were also knocked off of their feet by the force of the explosion.

“We were all so frightened and shocked,” another tourist at the scene, Mr. Liu, told us. At the time he had felt like that the earth was shaking, and everyone was afraid to approach the people that were struck. After about 20 minutes when the rain had waned a little, tourists around finally made their way to the scene and dialed 999 for help. One of the tourists was a doctor, and he ran down to check on the couple that fell. Finding that they were still breathing, he began immediately to administer CPR.

When the people of the Xizhazi Village heard of the news, local authorities arranged for 20 or so male villagers that are familiar with the terrain to assist with the emergency and rescue crew on the scene in their efforts. One of those villagers, Mr. Lu said that it had taken them two hours to get to the scene of the incident, and they found the 3 surviving victims there, one complaining they were unable move their leg. After a preliminary check, the rescue personnel found them to only have sustained minor injuries.

One rescue personnel told us that by the time they got to the victims at the foot of the cliff, they were both dead. The woman had a gaping hole in her forehead and the man had sustained multiple fractures. Four villagers assisted the 3 other victims in down from the mountain and at 8pm last night, villagers went up to bring the bodies of the two deceased down, and then started their ritual of burning firewood in front of their homes, to mourn the dead.

According to reports, of the 5 victims, 4 were civil employees of the State Intellectual Property Bureau, and they had started their climb at around 10 am yesterday morning. The two deceased were newlyweds: the woman, surnamed Chen, was a grad student at Beijing University; the man was surnamed Wei. They were both only 27 years of age. The other 3 victims were taken in for further questioning at the local police station, and were later picked up by someone from the Bureau.

The reporter saw at the scene that there were quite a few of warning signs set at the foot of the climb, inscribed: 'Non-Developed Area of Great Wall, No Climbing'. However, there is still a ticketing booth set up conveniently at the entrance to Xizhazi Village, and tourists get to climb the non-renovated section of Great Wall for only 20 yuan a piece.

See this news in its original form at ifeng.com

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