In a shabby public bathhouse down a small alleyway in Changchun - the capital of Jilin province in China's northeastern rustbelt - a stout woman scrubs the toilets and gives female customers back rubs through the course of the day for five yuan a rub.
Her service is popular and she can give up to 25 back rubs a day. The women tell her they like her strong hands kneading into their shoulders, but the 34-year-old is too embarrassed to tell them how she came to be so powerful. Zuo Chunlan was a top weightlifter who won the national championships and even broke a world record. But now, after years of devotion to her country and her sport, she's in poor health and destitute.
Like so many other athletes who spent their sporting lives in the cocoon that is China's national system, she is struggling to adapt to the realities of modern life since her career came to an end.
When she was 14 years old a sports official eyed her strength and squat stature and invited her on to the weightlifting team. She was taken out of normal school and brought into the sports system. Though young athletes are meant to continue their education while they are in training, studies often fall by the wayside as they focus on their sporting careers. Zuo, a case in point, is practically illiterate.
But while her friends were studying she was pumping iron and turning into a top-class lifter. Through her career she brought glory to her province and nation, winning 14 major medals along the way. She was only 17 years old when she took three golds at the national championships, breaking the world record for the clean-and-jerk lift in the process.
But it wasn't long before the strenuous training started taking its toll on the young girl. She picked up several injuries and was effectively forced into retirement at the ripe old age of 22. The socialist sports system that reared her technically has the responsibility to look after its injured and retired athletes, so Zuo was found a job in the team's canteen where she washed dishes and made steamed bread for a few years.
Then, after much persuasion, she finally agreed to leave and signed a statement relieving the sports department of any responsibility, taking in return a one-off payment of 75,000 yuan to cover medical fees and her retirement. The money seemed like a lot to her at the time but it rapidly disappeared, largely spent on medical bills.