Where China's sick and aged go to seek a cure

Bama County

HIS legs numb from a stroke, his head throbbing with pain, Wu Weiying came to the jagged green mountains of southern China in search of a cure.

Mr Wu, 66, had been hearing about Bama County for years - it was the longevity capital of China, the brochures promised, where illnesses vanished and people lived long past 100. Mr Wu, eager to regain his vitality so that he could once again play mahjong, set out last September for Bama's turquoise rivers.