A tale of two brothers

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." So begins the first line of Charles Dickens' classic A Tale of Two Cities. The well-worn phrase also sums up the tale of two brothers in Chongqing.

I met Zhang Xixiang and Zhang Xifu while traveling through Chengkou, a county deep in the mountains, more than eight hours' drive from the city's downtown.

Despite growing up in Chongqing, it was the first time I'd had a chance to explore its more remote corners, to see how poor transportation links had affected life on the peaks.