I have seen advertisements painted on walls in villages that promote hospitals and fertilizers, and other ads with government slogans on family planning.

The one I saw in Shenqiu county's Xin'anji township might just be the most unusual.

"Specialists in stimulating appetite," it read in large, blue characters. Below was a cellphone number.

I could not help but laugh. Yet once I started to think about it and considered the many other similar ads in those suburbs, I quickly stopped.

Villagers had lost their appetites for a reason. Residents and doctors in the area told me many people won't or cannot eat because their digestive systems are cancerous.

The tumor cells have not only stolen nutrition from their bodies, but also the Chinese people's trademark passion for food.

While visiting one cancer patient's home, I saw his neck was as thick as his head. His mother told me he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer two years earlier, and his neck had been swelling since, preventing him from eating.

Many people believe the polluted Shaying River has caused the high cancer rate.

"After drinking the dirty water, many villagers developed cancers of the digestive system," a 32-year-old woman told me.

She added that people with cancer can be found in every village along the riverbank.

This has been confirmed by medical experts. A report released in June by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the cancer rate along the Shaying River is much higher than normal.

The county government has attributed the pollution to historical factors, saying the river has been polluted since the 1980s.

In another cancer patient's home, I tasted the water pumped from the well in his yard. It was muddy, with a salty and bitter taste.

The man bought two bottles of water and gave me one, saying, "Drink this, it's safe." He and his brother have to drink from the well. They cannot afford bottled water every day.

He told me cancer has claimed many lives in the village, and that many victims die at an early age.

Those who survive struggle for a living, and must take a cocktail of pills every day to stop their tumors from spreading.

"Dying a natural death has become an unrealistic dream for villagers here," he said with a sigh.