Beijing: The tale of a 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved more than 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has won the award for China's greatest love story of 2006.
Now the local government is attempting to supply electricity to the cave, which has been the couple's home for the last 50 years.
The story began half a century ago when 20-year-old Liu Guojiang fell in love with a widowed mother, Xu Chaoqing.
Friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children and desperate to escape the scorn of their communities, the pair eloped to live in a cave in Jiangjin county in southwest China's Chongqing municipality.
Their story came atop a list of China's top 10 love stories organised by the Chinese Women Weekly, which collected tales from around the country since July.
Liu and his wife were not present at the award ceremony due to their age but their son Liu Mingsheng came with a kerosene lamp that his father had made from an ink bottle.
"My parents have lived in seclusion for more than 50 years because of their love for each other. They had no electricity and my father made kerosene lamps for light," he said.
An official of Jiangjin county, Dai Rong said, "We're glad to see the story of two senior citizens won and the local government will try to connect them to the electricity supply as soon as possible."
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