Delivery rider has no arms, but grit drives him to greater effort

A Hunan-born delivery rider who lost both his arms at the tender age of four now leads a charity and continues pushing the limits of what he can do. Each day in Fenghuang Ancient Town, a popular tourist destination in Hunan province, Li Xiangyang, born in 1995, weaves through narrow alleys on his one-wheeled electric vehicle.

Without hands, he has developed his own methods. He has fixed his phone to a stump with a magnetic mount; he then straps on knee pads, secures a black delivery box, asks restaurant staff to hand him orders and then sets off to make deliveries.

"The unicycle basically meets my needs," Li said. "My record so far is delivering five orders in one trip."

When asked why he works so hard, he said, "Only by earning my own living can I gain confidence and dignity."

Li traces his disability to an accident involving a leaking electrical transformer. Learning basic life skills became crucial. He began learning routine techniques at about five or six and progressed slowly; simple tasks such as holding chopsticks or a spoon with his foot took months of practice.

By his early teens he could carry out basic self-care, using his feet to eat and dress himself.

After the accident, the family took on heavy debt to pay for treatment and moved frequently while Li was young, traveling among several cities in search of work. "The biggest difficulty was psychological," Li said. "Without hands and from a very poor family background, I felt humiliated and worried about marriage and finding work. I couldn't sleep. When I closed my eyes, I was terrified of the future." That fear drove him to push himself harder.

Li married in 2016 and is now a father of two. For years, the family relied mainly on income from Li's street stall, where he writes characters with his feet. But stall income varied with weather and tourist numbers, so saving was difficult. In July this year, he began working as a food delivery rider.

Becoming a rider brought new challenges. Operating a phone, handling orders and navigating while riding require skills many people take for granted.

"At first I carried deliveries by hand, but my stumps would get sore, which limited how many orders I could take. I could only deliver one order at a time, so I didn't make much money," he said.

Li now spends his mornings delivering meals and his evenings at the street stall, often working until around 11 pm.

For him, the work is more than income — it brings a sense of achievement. "People are often surprised when I can reliably find addresses and deliver meals to their homes; they frequently offer words of encouragement. It not only gives me extra income but also moral support, and it may inspire other disabled people to leave their homes," he said.

After more than a month of hard work, Li has earned nearly 2,000 yuan ($280.39).

"As someone with a disability, becoming the family's main breadwinner is still a source of pressure," he said. "But society and the government are attentive to people with disabilities and have offered a lot of help. Despite the pressure, I'm confident I can take care of my family."

Li said he has received kindness from many people. That generosity inspired him to enter public service.

He remembers a noodle vendor who fed him as a child, taxi drivers who waived fares before he learned to ride a unicycle, and local officials who helped his family secure a public rental apartment when their rented house became dilapidated.

In 2016, Li joined the Shannabian public welfare association in Fenghuang by chance. Now he visits schools to give motivational talks, teaches students to write and provides psychological counseling and services to people with disabilities.

Over the past decade he has risen from an ordinary volunteer to the association's Party branch secretary.

"I went from fearing work as a young man to being a father of two with a happy family. I feel grateful to society," Li said.

Contact the writers at liuboqian@chinadaily.com.cn