Rescuers in search of the 13 people who lost contact after ascending Cangshan Mountain in Dali, Southwest China's Yunnan Province without permission. Photo: Courtesy of the Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade

Rescuers in search of the 13 people who lost contact after ascending Cangshan Mountain in Dali, Southwest China's Yunnan Province without permission. Photo: Courtesy of the Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade

Rescuers in search of the 13 people who lost contact after ascending Cangshan Mountain in Dali, Southwest China's Yunnan Province without permission. Photo: Courtesy of the Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade

Photo:Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade

Photo:Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade

A group of 13 people who lost contact after ascending without permission into the Cangshan Mountain of Dali, in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, have been rescued and sent to a safe area as of Sunday afternoon. They are in good physical condition.

On Thursday, the travelers bypassed the checkpoints of a county in Dali and lost contact in the mountainous area. To be noted that the dense vegetation and complex and dangerous terrain of the valley poses high risks to rescuers.

As of 3 pm on Sunday, all the 13 people have been rescued and escorted down the mountain by the Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade and other rescuers, and have safely arrived at the joint headquarters.

According to the local public security bureau, the 13 people lost contact after they contacted their other team members when they were at an altitude of 2,590 meters around 6 pm last Friday.

The location where these people lost contact is located on the southwest slope of Cangshan Mountain at an average altitude of 3,000 meters. The area has dense vegetation, a criss-cross of valleys and an intense temperature difference between day and night.

A total of 259 rescuers, 35 vehicles, four search and rescue dogs and over 1,200 sets of professional rescue equipment were provided for the rescue operation.

Since mobile communication devices could not be used due to the complex terrain and lack of internet access in the searched area, the rescuers had to communicate through very high frequency (VHF) relays and with Beidou Satellite telephones.

The trespassing into the natural reservation area of Cangshan Mountain by a group of 13 was reported by a local netizen in Yunnan last Thursday. The fact was then confirmed by the local emergency rescue department, according to media reports.

Whether the trespassing violated laws and regulations will be further verified when evidence is confirmed, cqcb.com reported.

The missing squad is believed to be in search of a military transport aircraft that crashed 80 years ago while flying over the Hump, an air route from India to China over the Himalayan Mountains to resupply Chinese war efforts and the First American Volunteer Group, better known as "Flying Tigers," during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

Two batches of rescue teams were dispatched on Saturday morning, including 29 workers, 240 sets of various types of rescue equipment, and two search and rescue dogs. 

The area where they got lost is located in the southwest slope of the Cangshan Mountain, with dense plant coverage, gullies and valleys. The temperature is between 10 and 20 Celsius, with light to moderate rain. 

Among the missing people is Sun Chunlong, a former journalist and the initiator of a charity event "veterans coming home." 

According to sources close to the matter, Sun and his peers went into the mountain in search of an aircraft that crashed and lost contact some 80 years ago while flying over "the Hump," a name referring to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which military transport aircraft flew from India to China to resupply the Chinese war efforts and the units of the Flying Tigers based in China, thepaper.cn reported

The sources said that they had brought with them several satellite phones, but one of them ran out of power and another one could not get through because of the rain. There were local tour guides and members of the Blue Sky Rescue Team, a Chinese civilian rescue organization, accompanying Sun's trek. 

"We will walk for four days carrying more than 10 kilograms of weight, and cut our way out of the bush. For me, it will be the biggest physical challenge of my life," Sun said on his WeChat Moments on Monday before entering the woods. 

The Hump route is more than 800 kilometers long spanning across the Himalayas, the altitudes of mountains along which are about 4500-5500 meters, with the highest altitude reaching 7,000 meters.

While flying over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, transport aircrafts could not reach the desired height above the peaks but could only fly through the canyons, making their flight paths forming the shape of a hump, for which the route was named. 

Apart from difficulties of flying through the snowy peaks, canyons, glaciers, and areas occupied by the Japanese troops, the climate in this area was extremely harsh - strong air currents, low air pressures, hails, to name a few. The air route was thus dubbed the "death route" due to the alarmingly high crash rate of planes. 

Global Times