Li Hongxu, a 39-year-old Chinese teacher at a Beijing primary school, can't keep the dismay off his face when the doctor says his right ear is developing neural hearing loss.

Li practically lost his hearing nine years ago after he experienced sudden facial paralysis.

On April 16, he started to experience dizziness and tinnitus in the right ear. He went to a nearby small hospital two days later, but it failed to identify the cause and Li just hoped the problem would go away.