By Xinhua,
Beijing : A man walked 800 km over 34 days to reach home to join his 70-year-old mother for the Lunar New Year celebrations after his money was stolen, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Li Haitao, 30, a migrant worker from central China’s Henan province, walked from Beijing to Zhengzhou from Feb 3 to March 9 to spend the Spring Festival with his mother, said the Dahe Daily.
Li found that 2,000 yuan ($290) kept in his pocket had been stolen Jan 21 before he could pay for a ticket at the railway station at Baotou in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region where he worked as a welder.
Another newspaper, Henan Business News, reported that the penniless man was then sent to a local rescue station. Li was given a ticket to Beijing Feb 1.
After staying in the rescue station for a day, Li chose to walk home, and picked up and sold empty mineral water bottles along the way in order to get money to eat. He slept during the day because it was too cold to sleep at night with only a blanket in the open air, reported Orient Today, another newspaper.
He arrived in the provincial capital Zhengzhou at 8 a.m. Monday morning when the police found the unkempt man with a pair of worn-out shoes, said Orient Today.