KUNMING, Aug. 12 -- A memorial service was held Tuesday for Xie Qiao, a solider who died in the rescue operation for a 6.5-magnitude quake that hit southwest China's Yunnan Province earlier this month.

Hundreds of people, including Xie's colleagues and relatives, as well as ordinary citizens, bid farewell to the 24-year-old soldier at the Kunming Funeral Home in the provincial capital.

On Monday, Xie was granted martyr status by the Ministry of Public Security and awarded a first-class merit citation by the border public security force of the Chinese armed police.

Xie, a health worker and sergeant with the general hospital of Yunnan border police, went missing on Aug. 4 when he swam a barrier lake in search of quake survivors. He was only five meters from the shore when he was struck by a falling rock.

Rescuers retrieved his body from the barrier lake four days later. Xie was among the first rescue troops to arrive in Longtoushan, the epicenter of the devastating quake which has left 617 people dead and 112 missing since it struck on Aug. 3.

"Xie Qiao sacrificed his life for quake-hit people. We will try to do our current work well. That is the best memorial for our good comrade-in-arms," said Zhang Fan, a colleague of Xie, who works in epidemic prevention in the quake-hit region.

Xie's story has moved quake-affected residents and citizens.

"My son is of similar age as Xie. He talked about his deeds and admired him very much," said Zhao Gang, a mother in Kunming who was holding a white chrysanthemum at the funeral service. She said she was moved by Xie's heroic story, which she read in a newspaper.

After the quake, the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and armed police sent more than 10,000 officers and soldiers to the quake zone for rescue operations.