JIANLI, Hubei Province,June 5 -- Wu Jianqiang, 58, and his wife had saved for months to afford their first long holiday. However, their trip of a lifetime will now forever be tainted by the tempestuous winds that caused the the ill-fated Eastern Star to capsize , and left Wu hospitalized with no idea if his wife is alive or dead.

THE LAST SUPPER

Together with six friends, Wu and his wife boarded a train in Tianjin on May 27 for the nine-hour journey that would take them to the eastern city of Nanjing, where they would begin their cruise along the Yangtze River.

Wu said he and his wife were delighted with their forth-deck cabin.

"It was so well-equipped. It had a wash room, a writing desk, and a locker. Our two beds were beside on either side of large sliding windows," he said.

Time seemed to fly as the couple basked in the beauty of China's longest river, which they watched drift past their cabin's large windows.

On the afternoon of June 1, the passengers were given the opportunity to explore the ancient battlefield of Chibi in Hubei Province and watch an opera performance.

"The tour guides asked us to return to the ship by 4:30 p.m., but the ship did not leave until 6:00 p.m., as some people were late getting back," he said.

He remembers the food that evening as the best served throughout the whole trip.

"There was plenty of rice, stewed fish, green bean, and fried tomato and eggs," he said. "My friend, we called him Old Wang, turned to me, smacked his lips together and said: 'I have still been hungry after the other meals, but this food is so good!'"

"I remember looking at my wife, she was also really happy, and who knows, that could have been the last meal we had together," Wu said, his voice breaking as tears ran down his face.

After dinner, the couple chatted with their friends on the top deck before retiring to their cabin to catch the seven o'clock evening news.

"The weather forecast said there would be heavy rain in Wuhan," he said,referring to the provincial capital of Hubei.

He recalled looking at the rain hitting the cabin's windows and thinking that at least the wind was not too strong.

IT ALL HAPPENED SO QUICKLY

However, the rain began to get heavier and heavier, and was pounding on the windows. Wu and his wife lay on the bed and he held her tightly.

"She was so scared, but I pretended to be calm, I didn't want her to get upset. But I knew, deep down, something was wrong."

The wind had whipped up into a storm by 8 p.m., and the rain was getting louder, hitting the windows like staccato rhythm beaten by a drummer.

Around 9 a.m., staff were running up and down the corridors shouting:"Close the windows! Push the beds against the doors to avoid getting wet."

Wu followed their instructions and went back to his anxious wife.

"Then things began to fall over, so I began to pick them up."

While his back was turned his wife fell off the bed and landed on the floor. Suddenly, everything in the room began to roll toward the door, including his distraught wife.

"I could feel my feet slipping from beneath me, but the bed I was by stayed in place. So, I stretched out my hands to my wife but our fingers never met, she was thrown against the wall," he said.

"Then the rug struck me on my head and I knew the ship must have capsized," he said. But he had no time to think, water began filling the cabin and the force of it pushed him toward the windows.

"I fumbled with the latch on the the windows, and to my relief, they opened. Then the water forced me out of the cabin," he said.

"It all happened within a minute."

MIRACULOUS SURVIVAL

Wu managed to scramble on to the bottom of the upturned ship. Four other people were also there, his wife was nowhere to be seen.

The group could feel that the ship was still sinking beneath them. There was no other option; they must swim to safety.

"It was raining, the wind was really strong and it was so cold. If we had waited we would have lost what little energy we had. We had to swim while we still had the strength."

Seeing what he thought were lights on the shore, Wu swan toward the shore, the four others following him.

The current kept pushing Wu in all directions, but he persevered and, 20 minutes later, he reached the shore. He looked around him, he was alone.

Wang Xiaobin, a ship worker, was in a boat with several colleagues when they heard frantic sounds outside and went to investigate. They found an old man, panic-stricken and soaked to the bone.

After hearing about Wu's ordeal, Wang called the police and told them that a ship had capsized.

Not long after, the four people Wu had met on the upturned hull of the cruise ship were brought onto Wang's boat. All five were transferred to a ship sent by the maritime authorities that was carrying two other survivors.

There was no sign of Wu's wife or his six friends.

"The windows saved me. Those windows I opened and closed, and looked out of so many times during that trip," he said.

The Eastern Star cruise ship capsized on Monday night in the Yangtze River during a tornado. Of the more than 450 people on the ship, 14 have survived, 77 have been confirmed dead, while the others remain missing.