Bearing witness to an unimaginable tragedy

To gain understanding, book work is not enough, you need to be there and experience it - so goes a poem by Lu You of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

From day one working as China Daily's Yunnan province correspondent, I decided to follow Lu You's words of wisdom. I have been to all of the 16 prefecture-level cities, and almost half of the province's 129 counties.

But until now I had never been to Yiliang county in the northeast of the province.