YINGXIU (BEICHUAN COUNTY) - NOT a single drop of water for 124 hours. But 20-year-old Jiang Yuhang emerged unscathed from the wreckage of his dormitory five days after the deadly quake.
The highway administration employee had just finished the night shift and was sleeping on the upper deck of a bunk bed when the quake struck.
Mr Jiang was jolted out of bed and, by the time he opened his eyes, he found that he had been saved from the crushing force of the collapsed ceiling by the metal bed frame.
Two other colleagues sleeping in the same room were badly injured and crying out in pain.
The trio spent the next 24 hours in pitch darkness.
By the next day, Mr Jiang's colleagues' incessant cries for help started to die down and soon it was all quiet. He tried calling out to them, but had no reply.
Mr Jiang refused to lose hope and instead kept as still and quiet as he could in order to conserve his energy.
'I told myself I could only wait. There will definitely be someone who will rescue me,' he told the Chinese-language Chengdu Wanbao.
For the next few days, he kept swallowing his saliva to stave off hunger pangs and to quench his burning thirst.
He also tried to hold his bladder for as long as he could to retain fluid in his body.
Over the next few days, memories of his family helped him keep up his spirits. He was discouraged several times when groups came looking for survivors and left without him.
At around 8am on Saturday, he was awakened by the sound of footsteps.
'Is there anyone there?' someone asked.
'Yes!' he replied, mustering all the strength he had left.
Six hours later, Mr Jiang was freed - with hardly a scratch on any part of his body.
His mother, who had trekked from Guizhou province in the south to the devastated town of Yingxiu, burst into tears when he emerged from the rubble.
'I was expecting to see my son's body, I never expected to see him alive,' she said.
Experts have said that the first 72 hours after an earthquake are the most critical if people's lives are to be saved.
At least 63 people were pulled out alive on Saturday and three more were saved yesterday. But rescue workers admitted that hopes of more such miracles are almost extinguished.
A woman named Yu Jinhua was saved alive around 8pm yesterday from a flattened power plant in Yingxiu town of quake epicentre Wenchuan County.
Rescuers had to amputate her legs before saving her.
Mr Shen Peiyun, 50, was rescued at 3.30pm yesterday from his collapsed office building in Maoxian county, about 50km north-east of the epicentre.
He suffered head injuries, but doctors said he had a 'very good chance' of recovery.
Mr Tang Xiong, 33, was pulled from a collapsed hospital of Beichuan County at 9am yesterday, 139 hours after the quake.
The doctor suffered slight bruises but was still conscious when he was pulled out, said rescuers. His wife was rescued earlier - on Thursday.
