Photo story: Going to school on grandma's back

Xiang Qiyou, 66, lives in the mountain area of Yibing, southwest China's Sichuan province. Her granddaughter, Qiu Fangmei, has suffered from knee deformity since she was born and lost the ability of walk. When Qiu was two, Qiu's mother got remarried and her father left home. Qiu was since then taken care by her grandparents.

When Qiu reached school age, Xiang began to carry Qiu on her back to go to school. It takes Xiang about one and a half hours to walk the one-kilometer mountain road to the school. In eight years, Xiang, with Qiu on her back, has made 1,500 roundtrips totaling 3,000 kilometers, and she never gets late to school.