--- title: China: Human Ladder Rescues Elderly Man From River description: Dramatic footage has emerged from China of passers-by forming a human chain to save an elderly man who had fallen into a river. canonical: https://time.com/4576266/human-ladder-man-china/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-18T15:23:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:48.019Z og:title: People Formed a Human Ladder to Rescue an Elderly Man From a River in China og:description: Passersby teamed up to save the man og:url: https://time.com/4576266/human-ladder-man-china/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafc15c5fd09e9c2b/6988aeff0a4a226ebc9cc18a/human-ladder.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: human-ladder og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Formed a Human Ladder to Rescue an Elderly Man From a River in China twitter:description: Passersby teamed up to save the man twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafc15c5fd09e9c2b/6988aeff0a4a226ebc9cc18a/human-ladder.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Elderly Man Saved from Drowning in China After Rescuers Form Human Chain by [Suyin Haynes](/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Nov 18, 2016 3:23 PM CUT  by [Suyin Haynes](/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Nov 18, 2016 3:23 PM CUT [Dramatic footage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK4QfWgjUOc "undefined") has emerged from [China ](http://time.com/4548747/china-communist-party-xi-jinping-symbolic-core-status/ "undefined")of passersby forming a human chain to save an elderly man who had fallen into a river. The video, posted by CCTV to YouTube, was filmed Wednesday in Kunming, in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Members of the public saw that the man had fallen into the river, leaving him mostly submerged in the water, and held onto each other to lift the man to safety by his legs. They then performed [CPR](http://time.com/3969254/the-new-simpler-cpr-saves-lives/ "undefined") on him until an ambulance arrived, potentially saving his life, the video’s description notes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4576266/human-ladder-man-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4576266/human-ladder-man-china/"},"headline":"Elderly Man Saved from Drowning in China After Rescuers Form Human Chain","datePublished":"2016-11-18T15:23:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:48.019Z","description":"Passersby teamed up to save the man","url":"https://time.com/4576266/human-ladder-man-china/","keywords":["Newsfeed","China","World","rescue"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafc15c5fd09e9c2b/6988aeff0a4a226ebc9cc18a/human-ladder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Suyin Haynes","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafc15c5fd09e9c2b/6988aeff0a4a226ebc9cc18a/human-ladder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"human-ladder","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4576266/human-ladder-man-china/","name":"Elderly Man Saved from Drowning in China After Rescuers Form Human Chain"}}]}] ```