Father looks for missing daughter
Print Edition
THE father of a 26-year-old woman from Shanghai who went missing while snorkeling in Indonesia flew out last night to help the search for her.
Zhang Qiujue was reported missing from the holiday island of Lombok on December 9.
Zhang studied at Shanghai University and is now a postgraduate student at the Institute of Anthropology of Taiwan’s Tsing Hua University.
She arrived in Lombok on December 1 for sightseeing and to visit an artist friend.
On December 9, she was snorkeling at Gili Air Island with her Moroccan friend, Asyraf, around 3pm. Asyraf entered the water first, followed by Zhang.
When he returned to the shore, he found Zhang’s footwear and cell phone left on the bank. He waited until 8pm but she did not return.
Her travel agency alerted police after three days of unsuccessful searching. Local police say she may have been swept out to sea by a deep water current.
A professor of the institute and Zhang’s classmates and friends have tried unsuccessfully to contact her. Zhang’s WeChat Moments and Facebook stopped updating on December 7 with her location positioned on Bali Island.
“I have not received any information on my daughter so far, and I am extremely worried and cannot sleep,” Zhang’s father said.
The Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau opened a green channel for him to obtain a passport and he flew to Bail last night.
“I went blank when being informed by her university she was missing,” the father said.
“She is still missing but it is better than bad news and there is still hope,” he said. “Local police and the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia are looking for her.”
Zhang’s major was journalism at Shanghai University and she had worked as an intern at several media outlets in Shanghai. Her dream was to be a war correspondent, her father said.
She learnt swimming at university but is not proficient, her father said.
“I will not give up if there is any hope,” he added.
Netizens have been posting on social media platforms in the hopes of finding her.
Drowning while snorkeling is not rare among Chinese tourists.
A Chinese female tourist who traveled with her mother to Thailand in August died when snorkeling in Phuket. A 29-year-old Chinese man died while snorkeling in Pulau Sibuan in Malaysia in May.
In January, a 29-year-old Chinese woman from Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, drowned when snorkeling at Koh Lipe in Thailand. Local police said cramp probably led to her death.
A 52-year-old Chinese woman died in November last year while taking a submarine walk in Pattaya, Thailand. The guide diver said she took her oxygen mask off underwater.
The Chinese Embassy in the Maldives reminded Chinese tourists to be cautious and take life jackets when participating in water activities ahead of this year’s National Day holiday. It said there have been several drowning accidents this year.
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