A VIDEO showing a deliveryman jumping off a high bridge to save a drowning woman Tuesday afternoon in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, has gone viral on Chinese social media.

In the video, the man was seen holding a rail on Xixing Bridge, a major 12-meter-high bridge that straddles the iconic Qiantang River, and making the briefest preparation before throwing himself into the river.

He swam toward the woman and took her to the nearest pier for safety.

“I was on my way to deliver an order,” said 31-year-old Peng Qinglin, the deliveryman, who had received his first order of the day when he heard the call for help.

“Of course I was a little frightened, because the bridge looked so high,” he admitted, smiling, in a video interview widely circulated online.

“But she was being swallowed by the river,” Peng said.

Hailing from Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, Peng has worked as a deliveryman in Hangzhou for over a year.

“The first words Peng uttered after he and the drowning woman were put safely on land were in fact ‘my delivery is going to be late,’” recalled an unnamed police officer who helped with the rescue effort.

Fortunately, his client was very understanding, even if the order was eventually delivered more than 10 minutes later than the required time.

“What a hero!” wrote one netizen under the video posted on a WeChat public account. It garnered some 40,000 likes in a couple of hours.

Peng was taken to the hospital Wednesday morning and was found to have suffered from a compression fracture in the spine. He has to be hospitalized for seven to 10 days.

For his bravery and selflessness, Hangzhou police authorities awarded Peng the title of “Good Samaritan” and a cash prize of 30,000 yuan (US$4,200). Meanwhile, the delivery company that Peng works for has also presented him with a cash award of 50,000 yuan as well as the opportunity to study in college for free.

(China Daily)