Suicide high among China's youth

I'll quote some interesting bits.

"An estimated 250,000 Chinese now take their own lives every year, according to the figures published in the China Daily newspaper."

"An additional 2.5-3.5m people are said to make unsuccessful suicide attempts."

"Suicide is the fifth major cause of death among China's 1.3 bn population, but the main cause of death for people aged between 20 and 35."

"The hotline receives an estimated 1,000 calls a day, but the Canadian director of the Beijing
Suicide Research and Prevention Centre, Michael Phillips, said only one in 10 callers can get through on the first try."

That about sums up the article but that's quite a problem. I know China has tons of people, but that's just the population of 20-35. I think this accentuates the important of problem solving, though.

[BBC News]

Oh, watch out this segways into another story.

There is a bridge in China called The Nanjing Bridge and this bridge is notorious as a suicide spot. This guy Chen Si decided one day to partol the bridge to talk people out of jumping and apparently he's saved dozens of people. That's quite uplifting, now things balance out.

[BBC News]