The photo that made a splash in the media in 2010 captured the moment when she had just finished a five-month stint working in Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi province, and was on her way back home for the Spring Festival family reunion.

She clearly remembers the journey from Nanchang to her home on Daliangshan Mountain. Carrying bags, big and small, and her daughter, she first took a train from Nanchang to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, which lasted for two days and a night, from where she spent another 14 hours on a train to Yuexi county.

By the time she finally arrived at her home, it was already midnight. The whole journey took three days and two nights.

Now, the travel time between Nanchang and Chengdu has been shortened to eight hours, thanks to the opening of a high-speed railway, and the journey from Chengdu to Yuexi cut to 6 hours.

Bamu's first job in Nanchang was moving bricks in a brick factory, for which she earned some 500 yuan a month, "not a large number, but better than farming back at home", she said.