Xu Hongci, a young medical student, was sent to Mao Zedong's labor reform camps in 1957. After three failed escape attempts, Xu broke out of a prison near the Burmese border in 1972. He eventually married and settled into a new life, until he was able to return home after Mao's death.
~~tag-text~~
Mao Zedong's labor reform camps were notoriously brutal; modeled after the Soviet gulag, their inmates were subject to backbreaking labor, malnutrition, and vindictive wardens. They were thought to be impossible to escape-but one man did. Xu Hongci, a yo... SEE MORE