[Photo by Zhang Yue/China Daily]

Even though it was September, it was already very cold and wet in the mountain after days of raining. After 30 minutes climbing, I was all wet and exhausted.

That was when Liu and his wife shouted to us from her kitchen: "Hey! Come and join us, gather around the fire."

Fresh start for ancient village

This is a common way for local people to warm themselves, by having a large iron circle fixed in the middle and burning firewood. Very soon afterwards, the whole kitchen was filled with heavy smoke. My eyes were hurting, as were everyone's. For the two evenings, that was how we spent time with the villagers and had evening chats with them.

The second day as I was leaving the village, my right eye was aching so much that I could not even open it. I rushed to the nearest hospital in nearby Lijiang. The doctor told me that my eye keratitis was recurring because of the heavy smoke.

Funnily enough, several other reporters also went to the hospital after we ended the visit, for some other reasons such as leg injury or flea allergy. "Maybe the flea knows that you are strangers, and they attack you," Liu joked.