Journey to a remote Chinese county that a US citizen calls home

Next, my colleagues and I visited the grave of Plymire's sister, Mary Ann Plymire. Born in Huangyuan, she funded the purchase of the county's first ambulance after she left there. She passed away in Canada in April 2016. In keeping with her last wish, her ashes were laid to rest in Huangyuan.

The grave sits on an open hillside, bathed in warm winter sunlight. Two bunches of dried flowers left by someone who came to pay respects could be seen there when I arrived. The headstone bears her name in both Chinese and English, with two doves also carved on it.

I was told this plot was chosen to bury her father's first wife and eldest son, who died of smallpox after contracting it while her father was treating local patients for free. "Mary chose to be buried here to sleep alongside her family. She also regarded this place as her only hometown," said Fan Long, who is in charge of the graves at the hospital.

Huangyuan, historically known as a trading hub near Qinghai Lake, once thrived on caravan trade. As a key node connecting local pastoral areas with what is now Xizang and Xinjiang, also in western China, it attracted merchants from Britain, the US, Germany and Russia in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and even later. The mild climate and convenient transport drew Plymire's father, Victor G. Plymire, to settle there as a missionary.

At the gate of the former county seat of Huangyuan, old photographs line the walls, with many taken by the senior Plymire in the old times. David later donated some 400 precious photographs taken by his father to the Huangyuan County Archives, now valuable material for studying the local 20th-century history.

Walking along stone-paved roads and past shops, we turned into an alley where a two-story building stood quietly, its lattice windows still in their original style. This was where David grew up.