I discovered this love story through a music video clip posted on FB. It's so CRAZY amazing that I have to share...of course the song is in Chinese so I don't understand it all but the music is so beautiful. And catchy. I googled it and found out the song was written based on this love story in China. The story has been around for awhile but it's new to me! Man, this is so inspiring - maybe one day I will inspire some lucky guy to hand carve steps for me? Probably an impossible dream - hey, I would be happy with 100 steps!
Here's a brief summary of the love story:
A Ladder of Love – One of the World’s Most Amazing Love Stories Happened on a Mountain in China
How many people in contemporary China—or anywhere else—would give up everything they have to be with the one they love? More than 50 years ago, Xu Chaoqing and Liu Guojiang chose exactly that.
Were Xu and Liu to meet today, they would face far fewer obstacles. But in 1956, Liu, was a 19 years-old boy, who fell in love with Xu, a 29 year-old widowed mother of four. At the time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman. To avoid gossip and criticism, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in the Southern Chong Qing area. In the beginning, they had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain.
Not until 2001 did they come to the world’s attention. A research team on expedition discovered a series of more than 6,000 steps carved into the steep mountainside. The stairs led the researchers to the couple, wrinkled by time but still very much in love. These 6,000 steps were Liu’s great work of love: He carved them painstakingly by hand, in an effort spanning decades, so that his wife could safely ascend and descend the mountain. The Ladder of Love has since become well-known throughout China, inspiring television and movie adaptations, even as Xu and Liu maintained their simple mountain life. He called her his “old lady”; he was still her “young man” after all these years.
“My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day.” Liu Ming Sheng, one of their seven children said, “He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she didn’t go down the mountain that much.” Liu continued caring for his Ladder of Love until his death in 2007, at the age of 72. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife’s hand even after he had passed away. “You promised me you’ll take care of me, you’ll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?” Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband’s black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks. Xu passed away on October 30, 2012, bringing to a close a love story that began in June of 1942.
Here's a brief summary of the love story:
A Ladder of Love – One of the World’s Most Amazing Love Stories Happened on a Mountain in China
How many people in contemporary China—or anywhere else—would give up everything they have to be with the one they love? More than 50 years ago, Xu Chaoqing and Liu Guojiang chose exactly that.
Were Xu and Liu to meet today, they would face far fewer obstacles. But in 1956, Liu, was a 19 years-old boy, who fell in love with Xu, a 29 year-old widowed mother of four. At the time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman. To avoid gossip and criticism, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in the Southern Chong Qing area. In the beginning, they had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain.
Not until 2001 did they come to the world’s attention. A research team on expedition discovered a series of more than 6,000 steps carved into the steep mountainside. The stairs led the researchers to the couple, wrinkled by time but still very much in love. These 6,000 steps were Liu’s great work of love: He carved them painstakingly by hand, in an effort spanning decades, so that his wife could safely ascend and descend the mountain. The Ladder of Love has since become well-known throughout China, inspiring television and movie adaptations, even as Xu and Liu maintained their simple mountain life. He called her his “old lady”; he was still her “young man” after all these years.
“My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day.” Liu Ming Sheng, one of their seven children said, “He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she didn’t go down the mountain that much.” Liu continued caring for his Ladder of Love until his death in 2007, at the age of 72. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife’s hand even after he had passed away. “You promised me you’ll take care of me, you’ll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?” Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband’s black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks. Xu passed away on October 30, 2012, bringing to a close a love story that began in June of 1942.
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