Peng Fuquan, 69, and his wife have lunch near a stone sculpture they created inside a cave excavated by the couple in a fissure at a cliff wall in a remote area of the Southwest China city of Chongqing on July 11.

Peng moved to the cliff 17 years ago after watching his rural town transformed into a modern urban city. He found it hard to adapt to city life. His wife moved in with him a year later, and they have spent the last 17 years in the cave he built into the cliff wall. The entrance to their home is by way of a ladder, and the nearest neighbor lives one kilometer away. Peng, who used to be a truck farmer, has created hundreds of stone carvings, inscriptions and sculptures over the years. Peng learned how to sculpt from an artist decades ago, and used to make stone inscriptions to mark key events such as Hong Kong’s reunification with the mainland in 1997. Now the couple’s apartment in a cave has two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a henhouse with more than 20 chickens raised by the couple. Despite various diseases that sometimes afflict seniors, the couple says they rarely take pills or injections. Peng said he has not taken a pill in 17 years, and added that he will never leave his cave home.[Photo/CFP]