A hiker is lucky to survive after sliding down a steep mountainside in China after powerful storms hit the region – and his near-death experience was captured on camera by a 360-degree camera.
Yang Meng, 42, was hiking in the Fanzengjian mountains in eastern China's Anhui province on Monday when she suddenly slipped. In the video shared on Douyin, China's version of TikTok, Yang can be seen suddenly losing her balance and then sliding rapidly down the mountain's slippery surface. Fortunately, a tree broke her fall after a few terrifying seconds.
The video has been liked by over 280,000 users on the platform so far and shared over 445,000 times.
Anhui province, about 450 kilometers west of Shanghai, has seen heavy rainfall after two powerful typhoons, Yagi and Bebinca, recently hit the region. The latter was the strongest storm to hit the region since 1949.
Yang later said: CNN He was not seriously injured as a result of the fall and suffered no injuries other than bruising on his leg and a few minor cuts and scrapes.
“I realized I couldn't get up at all and I was sliding faster and faster, so that's when I realized — I must be falling off a cliff,” he said in an interview Friday. “When I hit the tree, I felt like a heavy rock was coming down. I was just thinking, 'There's no way I'm dead.'”
“I think I came out mostly unscathed. Just a little scrape on my left hand and a small cut on my thigh,” Yang recalled, adding that the frightening encounter gave her some perspective. “Life is really short, so we have to make the most of every day. I'm not going to let this hold me back. On the contrary, it's pushing me to explore more of the world.”