Death of a local hero

The drowning of a young village official has highlighted the dangers facing young graduates who volunteer to work in isolated communities in some of China's remotest regions. Li Yang reports from the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province.

"If someone had to die that day, I would rather it had been me, not him," Kyikyi said, with tears in his eyes. He was speaking about his late assistant, Lodro Rinchen, who drowned in a mountain flood on June 30, aged just 28.

Residents of Ger Dengma village in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province, said the 52-year-old village head always repeats that phrase when he thinks of Rinchen.