A mentally disabled Chinese man has spent almost his entire life locked inside a wooden cage because his family cannot afford to look after him.
Tragic Wei Yun, 23, who lives in Gongchuan village, in southern China's Guangxi Province is unable to walk or talk and can only crawl.

As a young child he was allowed to crawl around the home but at the age of two he knocked over a pot of boiling water and almost died.

Because of this she is forced to lock him away in the small cage all day while she is out. 
A neighbour commented: 'It's a hard choice for her as she on one hand has to take care of Wei Yun but on the other she has to do field work and other odd jobs to support the family'.

Many of China's mentally ill people are forced to live in the most appalling fashion especially in rural areas where poverty is rife and there are no state facilities to care for them.

Wei Yun's plight echoes that of 40-year-old Tang Zuhua, whose 76-year-old mother has kept him locked in a ruined barn in Chongqing, southern China for 23 years.