Daily Sunshine
January 12, 2010

Shenzhen's Daily Sunshine (晶报) has been reporting on an ex-cop, Hu Di (胡堤), who on his journey from Shenzhen to Wuhan, got off a bus to conduct traffic during a bad jam. But Hu, "the most handsome cop" in Shenzhen, has already been transferred to another, non-police related department. A Ms. Liu took a picture of Hu and asked where he came from, the contents were then reposted on the Internet. Daily Sunshine reports:

Daily Sunshine first reported on "the most handsome cop" in Shenzhen. The report attracted a lot of attention from every major media outlet. The report was also placed in a prominent position on Internet portals, and has had a major effect all over the country. Netizens have been posting wildly expressing their enthusiasm, hoping to know "who is he?" Yesterday, a relative of the "most handsome cop," who lives in Wuhan, contacted this reporter to verify that he was indeed called Hu Di. Hu used to be a member of the border police in Shenzhen, and was later transferred to the national taxation department. This time he was going back to Wuhan in order to get married.

"My deep thanks for the concern and understanding of the Daily Sunshine. I did something that was very small, it doesn't deserve such wide-spread attention. The reason for the attention is perhaps the hope that similar incidents might happen more often, and not because people are curious about me. Today I am mostly busy with my wedding, so I didn't reply straight away. Please forgive!"

After the report was printed in the newspaper, Hu Di did not show himself for an interview with the reporter. Due to helplessness, this reporter resorted to text messaging for an interview. The hard work was not wasted, this reporter's text message moved Hu Di: yesterday at 7.16pm he called this reporter. At 10.41pm, he messaged this reporter with another very moving text message (above)...

A wedding portrait of Hu Di was sent in by his relative. Image: Source

"I didn't do anything that special"
Hu Di: It was a very small act, it really needn't be made so public, I only did what I was supposed to do. (Hu Di spoke before this reporter even asked any questions)

Daily Sunshine: Can you tell us about what happened that day?
Hu Di: On January 5, large amounts of snow suddenly fell on Wuhan. I was on a bus from Hankou (汉口) to Qingshan district (青山区), where I live. At the time it was extremely congested on the roads. At the beginning the bus was able to move slowly, but later it could not move at all. Someone got off the bus, so I got off too, I found that the source was due to a small intersection. In order to ease the flow of traffic, I put on the police coat that I had and started to direct a car to make a U-turn in order to ease the traffic jam. Ms. Liu who took that picture of me was at the very back of the cars, she also talked to me a little. When I was directing the traffic I wasn't very cold. Later on I realised that my hair, my legs and my feet were all wet through.

Daily Sunshine: Do you know that lots of people are looking for you?
Hu Di: I heard a friend mention it a couple of days ago. I didn't know at the time that Ms. Liu had taken a photo of me. Really this isn't anything, people are looking for me because they want to see more people do the same, see more help the weak in Shenzhen. I think that during a situation like that one anyone with a sense of responsibility would do the same. When I was working as a border police I would do the same. Now I have a different job, of course I'd do the same. At this time I am busy preparing for my wedding, and I wish to have a quiet time.

Daily Sunshine: Best wishes for your new marriage!

...
When Hu knew that netizens were looking for him, he was a little worried, explained Hu Di's wife Huang Fei (黄菲). After all he had already left the police, so wearing police uniform wasn't really suitable. "He didn't pretend to be a cop on purpose, but because the congestion was so bad you couldn't get anywhere. He was hoping that he'd help the flow of traffic, so he put on the uniform and got off the bus to help. But the coat didn't have a badge number or rank identification."