A village of two people

It takes about two hours driving on a bumpy road from Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, to get to Tianhu village.

The village is under Dahu township, Minhou county, and is five kilometers away from the ancient Xuefeng Temple. People moved in and formed a village about 300 years ago, but now it is virtually a ghost town.

There are now only two people in the village: Yan Weicheng, 55, and his 20-year-old son Yan Xian, along with about 40 sheep and 10 chickens.

Yan Xian is mentally handicapped. He has never attended school, and cannot speak properly. His mother abandoned him when he was just a month old.

"My wife took a sickle in her hand and said she was going to the city to work, but has never come back," said Yan Weicheng.

"There used to be over 20 families, almost 300 people in the village 15 years ago, but they all moved to another village because the transportation here is really bad," said Yan, adding that he has no choice but to stay and take care of his son.

Their income comes from selling the sheep and chickens they've raised. "We only sold two sheep last year. It's too rainy, and that's why the survival rate of the sheep is very low," lamented Yan.

They earned just over 2,000 yuan ($325) from the two sheep last year, which is enough to support them for a whole year.

Yan is very concerned that one day he will become too old to work, and no one will take care of his son.

The house they're living in is a shabby contraption of several crooked wooden rooms, with most of the roofs in poor repair and decaying beams that could fall at any time.

"This is not our house. Ours was flattened by typhoon over a decade ago," said Yan.

Similar cases are also seen in Sichuan, Hebei and Zhejiang provinces. All the villages share something in common. They are located in mountainous areas, and other villagers have all left because of the lack of transportation.

In early 2012, after their neighbor went to Guangzhou to live with his son, Tang Mingxiao and his wife Li Shifen became the only two left in their village in Daxian county of Sichuan Province.

The village used to be home to 140 people in its heyday.

In Fangkeng village under Wuyi county of Zhejiang Province, Chen Qunliang and his wife are the only villagers there after his father moved out.

Chen earned 80,000 yuan last year by keeping bees. He also raised over 100 goats and 10 cattle, which brought his total income to over 100,000 yuan.

They are satisfied with their life here even though the other villagers have left.  There is no cell phone or TV signal in the village, according to local media in Zhejiang Province.

Chen's case is rare, as their living conditions are far better than those of others left behind in mountainous villages.