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I have no qualms about what I did for Tangshan. I did what I should have done

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Tangshan miner Li Yulin's brothers and sisters refused to talk to him for three years after the earthquake, when he put his countrymen before his family.

With an injured hand and wearing only his underwear, Mr Li and three other mine workers raced about 180km from the crumpled city to Beijing in an ambulance, to alert central government leaders after the quake destroyed Tangshan's communications with the outside world.

While 22 members of his family died in the rubble, including his parents and his eldest son, aged 15, Mr Li had only one thought in mind - to save as many lives as he could.

'Death was not limited to my family. When you weighed your family members against the lives of one million Tangshan city residents, which was more important?' he said.

'I have no qualms of conscience about what I did for Tangshan's people. I did what I should have done.'

After jumping from his bed and leading his wife and three of his four sons to safety as their house collapsed, Mr Li, then 41 and deputy chief of the Tangshan Mine Workers' Association, rushed to the pit he oversaw, where about 2,000 miners were working underground. His eldest son was living with his grandparents elsewhere in the city at that time.

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