A woman carries her 3-month-old baby on her way back through Yingxiu town in Wenchuan county, two weeks after the 2008 earthquake razed the settlement. ZHOU CHAO / THE YANGTZE RIVER DAILY

"He was saved, so he wants to save others," Yang says.

Jiang, a native of Guizhou province, was napping in a dormitory with two other toll-booth operators who did not survive when the earth juddered.

"He's the luckiest man I know from Yingxiu," says Yang, who receives a visit from Jiang every year.

A firefighter official from Shanghai brought Yang to the city so he could overcome his trauma after the disaster and offered him two new excavators.

Yang refused."I asked for a fire truck instead," he says. "We didn't have one then. Several fires burned many houses down."

Yang became the driver, but he retired two years ago.

"You need to rush to a fire as soon as it breaks out," he says. "It's a young person's job."

The fire truck still zips around town. Before the quake, Yang earned an unstable income operating his excavator, selling sand scooped from the river and running a grocery store. He made about 200,000 yuan ($32,500) a year, he says.

The entrepreneur earned about 120,000 yuan when the restaurant business peaked but took home only about 25,000 yuan last year after paying his staff.

"Fortunately, I run the restaurant in my new house," he says. "If I had to rent, I could keep just enough to feed and clothe myself."

His family depends on the eatery.

"My son and son-in-law wouldn't have work otherwise. They need the income for my grandchildren," he says.

His son Yang Hejiang says he is still adapting to working at the restaurant. The 33-year-old dropped out of school when he was 15.

"I got used to operating the excavator after eight years," he says. "Managing the restaurant is new to me. I have to deal with all kinds of people, some of whom complain. And I don't ever really clock out, like I did before."

Yang Yunqing also relies on the restaurant income to do charity, he says.

A Chinese-American read about Yang online and traveled to Yingxiu to meet him and put him in charge of dispersing three annual donations of 80,000 yuan for poor survivors. The money flows through government coffers but cannot be dispersed without Yang's signature.

"I can't help the needy in need if I'm needy," he says. "After all that has happened, I just want my family to have enough and to be able to help others. Then I'm OK."

After the quake, Yang had to drink himself to sleep every night, and obsessed over reuniting with his wife in the afterworld.

The 63-year-old's children encouraged him to remarry. He did last year, to 55-year-old Liu Mingyu, who was moved when she saw him on TV.

"I admire my husband," Liu says.

"He's a hero. I feel safe with such a kindhearted man. He knelt to beg for the means to save others and worked day and night rescuing others, despite the tragedy that befell his family."