Builder honors wartime dead

After 10 years of laborious effort, Jin Chunxie has built 77 monuments to Chinese, Japanese and Soviet troops who died in Yanbian, Jilin province, during World War II.

Jin, 68, was born into a poor family of the Korean ethnic group in the northeastern Chinese city. He worked as a teacher, soldier and factory worker before becoming a civil servant in Wangqing county, Yanbian.

Over the years, he learned that at least 105 battles took place in the county, leaving more than 175 ruins and cemeteries holding 634 war dead.