HU YUEYING, 116

Life's greatest lesson for Hu can be found in the green tea she has cultivated and brewed most of her life: The bitter comes before the sweet, and she has known both.

She was good at growing things from at least age 14. She loved the soil and worked in her gardens until she was 113.

"Grandma is quick-witted and has an extraordinarily agile mind. The grain she planted in the years when there were shortages of food helped the family survive," grandson Lu Congqiang, 34, said.

Hu is the oldest person in Hezhou, according to the local government, outliving her only son, who died in a house collapse in 1991, and a 2-year-old daughter whose illness was beyond the skills of a "barefoot doctor". She witnessed the passing of all her siblings and her husband.

"I felt desperate when my son left me, but what else could I do but work harder? I didn't even have time to take a deep breath, and the children needed me," she said, sipping a cup of green tea.

"I have lost my husband, my children and my brothers, it's true. But I can always find love in my family and that is how I was encouraged to carry on."

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