Unable to afford a proper home after getting married, a Chinese couple moved into a mountain cave near the city Nanchong, and have been living there for the past 54 years.

81-year-old Liang Zifu and 77-year-old Li Suying found the cave three years after their wedding, and since they couldn’t afford to buy a real house, decided to make it their home and start a family there. In the beginning, they shared the unusual abode with three other families, who have since moved out, as have the couple’s four children, but the two elderly cave-dwellers won’t even consider leaving. After their story went viral in Chinese media, local authorities tried to persuade them to move out and even offered to provide them with a more comfortable house, but they flat-out refused.

The old couple have spent their whole lives turning the cave into a cozy dwelling, which now has three bedrooms, one kitchen and a living room. Liang even turned the roof into a small garden where they grow all the produce they need to survive, and set up a pigsty that provides them with fresh meat. A well dug near the entrance of their home supplies clean water, and they even have access to electricity. The two claim they have everything they need, and they just could leave everything they’ve worked for so hard and move away.

Plus, Li Suying says that their cave home is much cooler than a man-made house during the summer and warmer in the winter. The only thing they miss is company. The couple said that they sometimes get “a feeling of loneliness”, especially since their children moved out.

Their story has been a popular topic on Chinese social networks recently, and while some people have expressed concern for their well-being, living so isolated from society, most declared their admiration for the couple’s ability to raise a family in such austere conditions, with a few people even saying that they were envious of them for living a peaceful, happy life away from the hustle and bustle of China’s busy cities.

Modern-day cave dwelling isn’t as rare as most people might think. Just last month, we featured the story of Pedro Luca, who has been living in a cave for over 40 years, but there’s also Daniel Suelo, who has been living in a cave in the Utah desert for 15 years, and Anne Cautain and Bernadette Touloumond, two French women who moved into a cave to escape electro-magnetic radiation from mobile phones and other Wi-Fi devices.

Photos: NetEase

via China Daily