Son accompanies 87-year-old mother on a 12,775km walk home in 5 yrs (4)

They are mother and son: 87-year-old Xia Suqing and 65-year-old Jiang Huaxin. The two seniors, with a combined age of over 150 years, have walked the same route between their houses in southwest China’s Chongqing twice a day for five years.

Every day at 5:40 p.m., after having dinner with his mother, Jiang walks his mother home. At 7 a.m., he makes the same journey back to collect his mother and walk with her to his apartment. The distance between the two homes is 3.5 kilometers. Jiang and his mother have made the journey every day for 5 years.

"Mom likes to sleep in the old house," Jiang said. After his elder brother died in 2009, he took sole responsibility for his mother’s care.

As his mother insists on sleeping in the old house, Jiang takes her to his home every day. "She is old, so really I wanted her to walk as little as possible. However the doctor suggested her to walk more."

In 2010 Xia had surgery to replace her leg joints. The doctor recommended that she walked for at least two hours a day. The 3.5 kilometers walk would take young people about 40 minutes. As Xia walks very slowly, it takes them more than 100 minutes each way and over three hours in total to make the return journey each day. (Photo/Chongqing Morning Post)