Chris Buckley, A 'Modern-Day Knight' Who Helped Fleeing Tiananmen Activists. New York Times, June 7, 2014 (in the column The Saturday Profile that appears every Saturday).
(a) Quotation underneath the photo: "We were like a group of monkeys who were able to get away with what nobody dreamed was possible." CHAN TAT CHING
, which cn.nytimes.com translates: "陈达钲在他位于香港的办公室说，'我们就像一群猴子，做到了谁做梦也没想过能做到的事情。'”
(b) Quote:
"Mr Chan denied belonging to one of the “triad” crime gangs of the Hong Kong underworld, but he said he was familiar with the triads’ ways and that the gangs had helped Chinese political fugitives escape after the Tiananmen crackdown. Even so, he said, some triad members mistook him in 1996 for a crime world figure and cracked his skull with cleavers, leaving his left arm permanently weakened.
"it was dangerous work. Two of Mr Chan’s smugglers and an escaping student died in a crash at sea. Mr. Chan said he went on two runs himself, but left dozens more to his team of about 10 men, while he did the organizing and planning.
(c) Note:
(i) "he found his métier as a smuggler"
métier (n; French) www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/métier
(ii) The end of the report was ambiguous (maybe because there is no way to find out the truth): "Some organizers have since accused Mr. Chan of selling out to the Chinese authorities or overstating his importance in the operation, accusations that he brushed aside.