Nestled among the mountain ranges between China's Yunnan Province and Myanmar, there is a group of people who have no nationality. Recognized as members of the Lisu ethnic minority group, they speak their own language and depend on farming to make a living.

These people have crisscrossed the border for decades, but now hunger and disease are taking their toll on the beleaguered group, who find it hard to seek help because they're trapped in limbo.

The search for a home

Qi, a 22-year-old woman of the Lisu ethnic group in the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, has just helped her family organize the funeral of her sister-in-law. She is worried that the 15 members of her family will be short on money for a while.

"My brother just came back from Myanmar a few days ago and my parents came back 27 years ago. All the young people in the family were born in Yunnan, but we don't have hukou (a residential permit) or Chinese nationality here," Qi told the Global Times over the phone.

Her family traveled through the mountains to move to Myanmar in 1958, when they heard a "revolution" was coming to China. They were scared, and they never stopped feeling as though their true home was in Yunnan, so they chose to move back in 1985.

Their family is among the 19,605 people who regularly travel back and forth between China and Myanmar, according to research from the Kunming-based Metropolis Times.

The local government was unavailable to confirm the precise number, but said that they are aware of the situation and are taking measures to deal with it.

"The Lisu are an ethnic group living on the border of China and Myanmar and they have been migrating back and forth for a long time," an official surnamed Fan with the provincial foreign affairs office, told the Global Times. "The border between the two countries was settled in 1961, and if they were migrating back and forth before this time, it would be difficult to identify them as Chinese nationals, but the local government is now trying to help them."

Pujia went to Myanmar in 1958 with his uncle when he was 18 years old. On the first day he arrived there, a stranger gave him a pot he could use to cook, which helped him survive.

Later he learned that his new neighbors  consisted of locals and Lisu people who had migrated decades earlier, the Metropolis Times reported. The Myanmar government persuaded them to return to China, insisting that they were Chinese, but they remained silent or quietly insisted that they were of the Lisu minority.

The new arrivals mostly stayed with relatives and helped them farm, while building homes and churches of their own.

But, according to the Metropolis times, as Chinese who had later come to Myanmar told them that the "revolution" was over, hundreds of them went back to China in June 1986, carrying only water and grain, as well as their dreams of returning home. The flow has continued ever since.

A treacherous path

Just three hours from Guquan village in Fugong county, lies the village closest to the border and after climbing up the highest mountain at the back of the village one is finally in Myanmar.

It's a tough, hazardous trek, though people have been passing through here for more than half a century. During Decembers, people have been known to freeze to death during storms, but summer is no less difficult with floods sweeping people away.

Cimamai, 80, has painful memories of his trek to Myanmar. He told the Metropolis Times that the only luggage he carried with him was a water bottle, and he climbed all the way to the neighboring country barefoot.

Cimamai couldn't remember how many mountains he climbed because all of his attention was focused on simply putting one foot in front of the other, while he walked on a path that only allowed one person to pass through at a time. A lot of the time, he was gambling with his life, risking certain death if he fell.

"The earliest migration of the Lisu minority group could date back as far as 200 years ago. The Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture is the poorest region in the province, and the ethnic group kept migrating to Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Thailand," Zhu Zhenming, a professor at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

More than 2.5 million Chinese from Yunnan migrated to Southeast Asian countries and 2 million of them moved to Myanmar, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

"Thailand has a better policy than Myanmar for the Lisu minority group, so some of the Lisu people transferred to Thailand from Myanmar. The older generation can have a residential permit there but if their children choose to stay in Thailand, they receive Thai nationality. But Myanmar has been overwhelmed with its domestic affairs so it hasn't offered aid to these people," Zhu said.

As the border areas are in the mountains, it is even harder for local governments to trace how many people are moving back and forth through the border, Zhu added.

No life without ID

Yunnan Province authorities say they have been working on improving the living conditions of minority groups living in mountainous areas including the Lisu ethnic group. Local governments also provide preferential policies for these groups.

Qi, as a young person, is lucky enough to know how to speak Putonghua, but without a Chinese ID, she can't find a job outside the mountains or enjoy social welfare benefits such as medical treatment.

"My aunt has been in bed for eight years, and without social welfare benefits, our family couldn't afford to see a doctor," Qi said.

Qi said some local officials had come to her village when they first came back from Myanmar, and they registered for hukou, but they still haven't received any identification documents.

When asked about how she made her living and how her family has survived, she just smiles but the pain comes through in her voice.

"I have no idea, I just stay with my family, living in a shady house built with bamboo, where I farm. And we are desperate for help from the outside," she said.