The family that never gave up

"Father, check the boiling water, please," called 72-year-old Zhang Huanzhi, asking her limping husband to check a kettle on a burner in the courtyard.

Usually women in China's rural areas, especially in the north, undertake household work to allow their husbands to concentrate on the "big issues" - important business outside the home.

However, in this family, husband and wife have swapped roles.