A man is stranded on a cliff on a mountain in Hangzhou city, the capital of East China's Zhejiang province, Feb 18, 2016.[Photo/CFP]

A 40-year-old man in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province who claimed to be a poet who was climbing the barren mountain in search of creative inspiration, somehow became stranded on a cliff on Thursday.

While he was halfway up the mountain, wearing leather shoes that were slippery, the dry sand and gravel made it easy to fall, so he couldn't continue climbing but was also afraid to come down. He managed to stay in a small dent, and called the police, but it took half an hour for them to spot him in the isolated mountain.

After being stranded for five hours, he was rescued by local police, who were secured by ropes dangling from above the mountain to pick him up. On his way getting off the mountain, the poet smoked a cigarette to calm himself down.