Fleeing China's Covid lockdowns for the US - through a Central American jungle

China may be easing some of its severe anti-Covid restrictions but its draconian pandemic policies have driven many citizens to seek a better future elsewhere - whatever the risks in getting there.

Three days into their trek through a Central American rainforest, some 9,300 miles (15,000 kilometres) away from home, the Sun family threw away their camping gear to lighten the load, thinking they would be out by nightfall.

Instead, they were stranded in the jungle by heavy rain.

That night, Sun Jincai, his wife and three children - aged six, nine and 11- squeezed into a small tent they found on the trail, likely discarded by other migrants, like themselves, while trying their best to ignore the cold water seeping through the thin fabric.

"Luckily none of us got sick," said Mr Sun.

It was just one of many perilous steps on their journey from China to the US.

Mr Sun, 34, his wife and youngest child used to spend the better part of a year living on the coast of China, where jobs were abundant.

The other two children lived with their grandparents about 400 miles away in Jiangxi, a landlocked province in China's east, as it was hard to enrol in school outside their hometown.

But as the Chinese economy lost momentum amid tough Covid-19 restrictions and a growing tide of authoritarianism gripped the country, Mr Sun began searching for ways for the family to leave the country together.

"China is going backwards," said Mr Sun. "My wife and I want a better future for the kids."

The US seemed out of reach until earlier this year, when Mr Sun came across a young woman who shared details of her journey on WeChat, a Chinese messaging platform. She said she hiked through rainforests in Central America, then up north across the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border. "If she can do it, why can't we":[]}