Yang, 91, lives on the outskirts of China's bustling capital Beijing. Following the death of her husband, she was so lonely that she says she even considered the possibility of voluntary euthanasia. "I asked my son about it but he told me it was banned. I told him that if it ever becomes legal I want to do it - I didn't want to live any longer."
Suffering glaucoma, with failing eyesight, she was unable to even do basic things like adjust the controls on her air conditioner. Cases such as Yang's have become increasingly common in Chinese cities which Associate Professor Teresa Kuan, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says is "exacerbated by the structure of society and the modes by which people interact".