Two US veterans stand near a stone roller used in World War II to build military facilities, at a graveyard in Tengchong County, Yunnan Province. Twenty-eight US veterans and their relatives visited Tengchong on Wednesday to mark the Hump Route operation. - Xinhua

Standing in the Guoshang Graveyard in Tengchong County, southwestern China's Yunnan Province, William Pribyl, an 84-year-old American veteran, raised his right hand slowly to pay tribute to 19 soldiers of the Allied Forces who died fighting in the battlefield in the province 60 years ago.
"They lay here and I have survived till now," said Pribyl, "I feel sorry for this. Without their sacrifice, the Allies would not have won World War II."
Pribyl was a lieutenant during the war and he participated in the building of a petroleum transmission pipeline linking Yunnan with the Indian state of Assam.
Pribly and five other American veterans as well as their relatives came to Tengchong County to commemorate the daring move of flying over the Hump Route more than 60 years ago.
Helen colony, who was a nurse serving at red-cross societies of China, India and Myanmar, is one of the visiting veterans. All these veterans said their visit to Yunnan is an exciting "journey of reminiscence."
When walking close to a stone roller in the graveyard, Pribyl told young people surrounding him how the stone roller was used in building military facilities at that time. "The Chinese had much bigger stone rollers when building an airport and it needed 200 people to pull the stone roller."
Peter corbin, 83, said, "I served in the land forces and but I also flew over the Hump Route."
Opened in 1942, the 500-mile Hump Route began in Assam, passed over the Himalayas and reached southwestern China's Sichuan Province.
During their hasty visit to Tengchong, the American veterans were warmly welcomed by some Chinese veterans who also fought in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. They together paid tribute to those Chinese and American officers and soldiers who died fighting the Japanese invasion.
When visiting the Yunnan-Myanmar Anti-Japanese Aggression Museum, 82-year-old Brian Bumpas, a former air force lieutenant, saw at first sight the lantern slides and photos of movie stars he loved to carry with him during the wartime, exclaiming "Very good!"
The museum, the first of its kind built with private investment in China, houses about 5,000 relics related to Chinese expeditionary forces, American-British allied forces, civilians fighting Japanese invasion and relics of the Japanese invaders.
The visitors are among more than 170 American veterans and their relatives who arrived in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, on Monday to attend celebrations to commemorate China's victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and victory in the war against fascism.