Beijing (China Daily/ANN) - A 11-year-old boy walked on a highway for 11 days with only 24 yuan (US$3.80), the Fujian-based Strait News reported on Friday.
Police said the boy walked about 150 km from Shishi city, Fujian province, southeast China.
The boy said he walked as fast as he could during the day to get back to Jiangxi province as soon as possible.
At nights, he slept in emergency parking areas.
He said he bought only five bottles of water and two loaves of bread during his 11 days on the road. When he had no water, he drank tap water from the highway's rest stations.
The boy had lived with his grandmother in Jiangxi province while his parents were working as migrant workers in Shishi city. Earlier this month, he joined his parents there.
He told police that he missed his hometown because his father gave him a lot of homework.
On July 14, he took 4 yuan he found in a drawer and left his parents' residence.
He had no idea which way to go, so he walked along a highway, believing it would lead him to his hometown.
On the first day, he met a man who gave him 20 yuan for food.
"It was scary at first when cars raced past me, but I got used to it soon," he told police.
In the early morning of July 24, the boy, tan and thin with bruises all over the body, was found by highway workers and handed over to police.
Later that day, Wu's parents came to pick up their son. The boy was later sent a hospital.