Elder man loses tour group, wanders 100km from Beijing to Tianjin

BEIJING - A 73-year-old man who lost his tour group while in the Forbidden City was found in Tianjin after wandering 100 km from Beijing.

The man, surnamed Yu, was trying to walk back to his home 2,000 km away in Rui'an, east China's Zhejiang Province, but became disoriented and walked to Tianjin after losing contact with his tour group on Oct. 13, the Wenzhou Metropolis Daily, a newspaper from Yu's home province, reported.

A stranger found him wandering in Tianjin with severely blistered feet and brought him to a police station.

After losing sight of his guide on the second day of a six day tour, he searched for the group but could not find them in the crowded tourist spot. He then asked for help from men "in uniforms," but they could not understand his dialect.

Without a phone or phone numbers for the tour guide or his children, Yu decided to walk home.

Yu's drama amused some Chinese netizens, who joked that the capital's smog was to blame for him getting lost. Most people offered sympathy for the poor man and his unforgettable six-day-tour from Beijing to Tianjin.

"I will never travel again," Yu told the newspaper, still upset from the troubling ordeal.