Guo Wenxiang never expected that when she opened her hotel she would be in a position to help save those attempting suicide. Wang Ru reports

In the hope of creating a better life for herself, Guo Wenxiang, a village woman with little education, opened a hotel by the sea 27 years ago in Beidaihe, Hebei province.

However, her life really changed on a mid-summer night in 1984, 10 days after her hotel opened.

That night two local policemen brought an 18-year-old girl to Guo's hotel. The girl surnamed Kang had tried to drown herself, but was saved by tourists.

Kang was from a poor village in Hebei province. She ran away from her home because her parents had forced her to marry a man she didn't like. Desperate, and without food for four days, Kang had decided to die.

Guo allowed Kang to stay at her hotel and gave her food. She listened to Kang's story and they shed tears together. "If you die, people will spread rumors that you did something shameful. Do you really want that to happen?" Guo said and encouraged Kang to be strong.

Most guests left the hotel because they thought it was not auspicious living with someone who had tried to commit suicide, but Guo continued to care for Kang.

"She began to talk to me like my daughter and gradually recovered from her desperation," Guo recalls.

Kang's parents came to pick up her one week later. Guo warned them that they had violated the law and the frightened village couple promised to cancel the marriage.

Guo never expected that over the following decades she would change the lives of many others.

From then on, the local police continued to send saved people to Guo's hotel. Guo never refused them.

She always shows compassion to suicidal people and feels happy when she sees them recover their courage and hope. She says she is a sentimental person who can empathize with the pain and grief of others.

She provides food and lodging to the people who have been saved from death and looks after them - many of whom are in a coma or are unable to move because of sleeping pills.

Guo clearly remembers how shocked she was one day in 1988, when she saw a pair of twin sisters, both in a coma, who had been saved from the sea by soldiers.

"They were so young and pretty," Guo recalls. She took them in, and as usual, most of her guests checked out.

The 19-year-old twin sisters were from Beijing. Their father was a director surgeon in a big hospital and their mother was a teacher in a local high school. It seemed that they should be enjoying life, instead of taking sleeping pills and jumping into the sea together.

"They told me they felt their life was boring and they had no hope for the future. I was so puzzled about it," Guo said.

Guo looked after them like a mother - she fed them food, spoon by spoon, and cleaned their bodies carefully. At night, she slept by them, telling the twin girls before sleep how hard life could be for a village girl like her, who had no education and had to work for the family.

When the twin sisters recovered and their father came to collect them, they burst into tears and told Guo that they would always miss their mother by the sea.

During the following years, Guo continued to care for those brought to her hotel: a female college student who was abandoned by her boyfriend; an unlicensed vendor whose goods were confiscated and a woman whose husband had an affair were among the many who came to her.

"I don't have magic. I am just an ordinary village woman with ugly looks," Guo says. "Maybe it's just because I treat them with my true heart and keep telling them how grief-stricken those who loved them deeply would be when they learned they died," Guo says.

Since 1984, 68-year-old Guo has helped more than 110 people escape the shadow of suicide. Most of them are young people in their 20s.

Guo can't swim and has never saved a person from sea with her hands. However, like a lighthouse standing by the sea, Guo offers a ray of hope to many desperate people.

Beidaihe is a seaside resort 280 km from Beijing with a mild climate that attracts thousands of tourists in the summer.

However, for many desperate souls looking to end their lives, the sea beckons as their final destination.

Guo often walks by the sea during overcast days, not for the view, but on the lookout for anyone who might be contemplating suicide.

"It feels like I have an occupational disease," she says with a laugh.

The optimistic woman likes making jokes and is always laughing.

During the past 27 years, Guo has experienced a life she never imagined - she was selected as a deputy of the National People's Congress, has been invited to give speeches in many universities and received many honors, and is constantly in the media spotlight.

In 2001, a popular TV talk show of China's Central Television Station, invited Guo to be a guest on the program.

After her appearance, Guo began to receive countless calls begging for help, most of which were from parents whose children had attempted suicide. Many of them planned to send their children to Guo for healing.

"Most suicidal people share a similarity," she says. "They put themselves into a dead end when having difficulties, and don't seek help and advice from others. Sometimes, all they need is consoling and care from others."

China is a country with a high suicide rate. It has been estimated that every two minutes a person commits suicide. Suicide has become the top cause of death for people aged between 18 and 34.

In recent years, Guo has noticed that the people she helps are getting younger. In the most recent case this month, she helped a 16-year-old boy who attempted to drown himself.

"It is the responsibility of the society to care about the suicide issue," says Guo. "I am only an ordinary village woman without much education, but I know life is more valuable than anything else."

In 2006, recovering from an operation to remove a tumor, Guo opened a nursing home for elderly people. "I didn't do it for money. People suggested that I do so, as they believed my personality would suit the work, and I agreed."

In the nursing home, Guo and her staff provide 24-hour intensive care to about 30 old people mostly aged from 80 to 90.

The nursing home can't make ends meet every year, but Guo insists that she will continue to keep it running.

When she feels exhausted, Guo often recalls the faces of those people she has helped. She has received many letters from them, but she has never replied to any of them.

"I hope that they can forget the sea and me, both of which may remind them of their painful memories. I just want them to lead happy lives, that's enough," Guo says.

(China Daily 06/29/2010 page20)