He is stationed at the Himalayan border: "Chinese land can only be guarded by Chinese people!" Work | Wang Wei | Himalaya
37 year old Wang Wei left the black soil in Northeast China where he raised himself and came to the foot of the Himalayas for 14 years.
A person's life has two hometowns, one connected to life by flesh and blood, and the other in harmony and blending with the soul. For him, Daqing in Heilongjiang Province is a geographical hometown, while Shannan in Xizang is a spiritual home that cannot be abandoned. He spends 300 days out of 365 days a year here.
Wang Wei, the current instructor of Yumai Border Police Station of Shannan Border Management Detachment in Xizang, was recently elected as the "Second Top Ten Guards of the Border" by the National Immigration Administration. He has been stationed at the snowy border for years, and his cheeks have long been exposed to two patches of plateau red from the strong ultraviolet rays. Hidden in the deep wrinkles are loyalty and enthusiasm.
Outside the barracks are barren mountains with exposed rocks
In 1986, Wang Wei was born in Daqing, the "oil city" in Northeast China. His father used to be a tank soldier stationed in Inner Mongolia. After retiring, he still liked to pay attention to the international situation and study border issues. His home often hung two large maps of China, filled with various annotations.
He still remembers that among the place names his father often mentioned, there was a place called "Dawang", known as the pearl of southern Tibet. At that time, Wang Wei, who was still a child, did not expect that as he grew up, he would take root in the places where his father's fingers crossed, but he put his father's words in his heart: "These places are particularly important and need more people to protect them..."
In 2009, Wang Wei graduated from Heilongjiang Public Security Police College, chose the snowy frontier and became a border guard in Xizang.
"I have never seen such a small county town, which is full of dirt roads. When I take a bus, the dust will come through the window through the glass, and the whole carriage will be filled with dust." Because of the geographical environment of Xizang, the roads all pass through villages. It is only 40 kilometers from Longzi County to Jiayu Township, but it took me more than 2 hours to drive.
The unit assigned to Wang Wei is the Jiayu Border Police Station, located on the China India border. This is the border township with the largest population in Shannan Longzi County, with a large population, high risks, and many contradictions.
When Wang Wei reported to Jiayu, the police station barracks were under construction. Everyone at the police station is crowded into a house with a soil and stone structure provided by the local people for work and life. The space is more than ten square meters, filled with three beds, one dining table, and one set of kitchen utensils, which is narrow and cramped. When sleeping at night, the pillow and quilt are filled with the smell of oil fumes, accompanied by the fragrance of rice every day.
There is no internet, no running water, and frequent power outages, which makes Wang Wei, who is accustomed to modern urban life, both novel and anxious. The long yellow sand at that time, the monotony and boredom at that time, and the hard work at that time all became the most severe test of society for a young man.
The following winter, Wang Wei and his colleagues went to Pang Village for a visit. Because in winter, the temperature drops to minus ten degrees Celsius, and the water pipes in the village are frozen and burst. People have to queue up in long lines to carry water by the river one kilometer away.
"The old and young, with cold ears and red nose, and frosty white eyebrows, deeply penetrated into my heart."
After returning from the visit, he took the initiative to report the relevant situation to his superiors. Finally, with the coordination of multiple parties at the police station, he managed to obtain 500000 yuan in funding and helped the village to lay new insulation pipelines, build a three-level reservoir, and completely solve the problem of drinking water difficulties for 255 villagers in winter.
At the moment when the water pipe splashed out, it reflected the elderly people's hands clasped together, filled with tears, giving him a sense of happiness that was needed.
"Falling rocks are rolling towards us."
"There are no earth shattering events, no grand actions, only ordinary surprises and small gains after putting in effort, which make me more determined to root down and grow up."
In fact, the "surprise" that Wang Wei casually describes is not ordinary at all, but more of a "thrilling" experience of surviving a disaster.
For immigration management police, border patrol is the most routine task of guarding the country's borders. Normally, Wang Wei often patrols and inspects the two outer mountain passes of Juemla and Mogala with police officers from the police station.
The duty point at the outer mountain pass of Juemratong is 40 kilometers away from the police station, and most of the section is a washboard road. Vehicles often rub against the chassis when walking on it, and it takes more than 2 hours to drive under the "bang bang" sound. Especially for those sitting in the passenger seat, it is important to hold onto the door handle tightly and be prepared at any time to deal with unexpected dangers.
The most agonizing thing is to climb over a high mountain with an altitude of over 5500 meters - Changla Mountain. The winding mountain road is like a flattened "Z" shape, continuously extending from the foot of the mountain to the top. "There are over 70 turns on the mountain road, and people in the car are swayed left and right, and their toes involuntarily tighten."
After arriving at the duty point, stay for 7 days. In order to preserve the fresh meat for a longer time, they simply put it in a bucket of water and then put the bucket in the river to freeze.
When patrolling outside, it's either the mule and horse path or the sheep's path, with thorns everywhere. Walking on the ice, you can hear the sound of flowing water below, which is truly like walking on thin ice. After quickly drinking the water brought along along along the way, Wang Wei and his comrades became thirsty and drank snow water. The melting snow water from the top of the snow mountain drips down the vines, and the entrance is refreshing.
There was basically no signal along the way, and we often encountered sudden situations such as sudden weather changes, landslides and falling rocks, and vehicles breaking down. The patrol road of over 10 kilometers must be returned to the duty point before 4 pm in the afternoon. "Because of the microclimate here, the weather will be changeable after 4 o'clock, and rainstorm and hail will come soon."
In the face of danger, sometimes we can only take a gamble.
Duobu Zhugu is the farthest cordyceps collection and excavation site from the police station. Ensuring follow-up services and preventing cross-border excavation and various hidden danger disputes has also become an important task for the police station. The excavation site is over 30 kilometers away from the jurisdiction, with only the first 8 kilometers available for driving, and the rest relying on climbing and mountain climbing, which is also the most feared road section for everyone.
Once, when we reached two-thirds of the way, we encountered a landslide in a snowy mountain and said, "Rocks are rolling towards us, and we can only nestle under a small flat surface raised by a stone. We pray in our hearts not to be buried!"
Day after day patrols and an unchanging route, Wang Wei walked for a full 12 years, transforming from a university student who walked out of an ivory tower to a loyal defender who burned his youth and blood at the border.
"As long as you follow the national flag, you will definitely be able to go home."
"In the past, no matter where I stood, I usually didn't think about the boundaries of the land in front of and behind me. But standing here, in front of me was another country, and behind me was my own motherland, which truly made me realize that the word 'home country' is as important as a thousand pounds!"
In July 2021, due to work reasons, Wang Wei was transferred to the Yumai Border Police Station. Yumai Township is located in the towering mountains of the Himalayas, with mountains connected by mountains and dense forests and shrubs. The average altitude is 3650 meters, and the police station is the first law enforcement force to enter here. In 2022, the Yumai Border Police Station was rated as the second batch of "Fengqiao style Public Security Police Stations" in China.
From the 1960s to the 1990s, Yumai Township had only two sisters, Zhuoga and Yangzong, and their father, Sanjie Quba, for a long time. They lived on grazing and guarded the land of more than 3000 square kilometers here. When the police station was stationed, Yumai Township had only 9 households and 32 people, making it the administrative township with the smallest population in the country.
Winter is the most unbearable time every year, with heavy snow blocking the mountains for half a year. Relying solely on potatoes to satisfy hunger, the snow is so thick that it exceeds the knees, and there is no way at all. It is precisely because of their persistence that Yumai, a plateau island, has forever remained on the map of China in the name of "home".
The special geographical location and complex struggle situation mean that there are heavier responsibilities and missions here.
The population here has decreased by 15 times compared to Jiayu Township, but Wang Wei said that we need to further refine the work by 15 times. Standing under the slogan "Home is wheat, Country is China", he knows that the responsibility on his shoulders is even heavier.
During patrols, they will spray the words "China" and "CHINA" with bright red paint on rocks and tree trunks, depicting a five-star red flag and planting more and more national flags on the border. At that moment, Wang Wei felt like he was riveting steel nails that would never rust at the edge of the snowy region, firmly guarding this hot land under his feet.
The people in the jurisdiction said to them, "No matter how strong the wind and snow weather is, you no longer have to worry about getting lost in the forest, because as long as you walk along the national flag, you will definitely find the way home."
Shuttling through the winding paths of primitive deep forests, occasionally climbing steep cliffs and hanging ladders, a police officer accidentally fell from a 3-meter-high shallow cliff and was scratched in both hands by thorns. Everyone has become accustomed to these things.
China has a land area of 9.6 million square kilometers and a vast territory, with Yumai Township covering over 3000 square kilometers, accounting for only about 0.03%. However, every inch of mountains and rivers needs to be guarded, supporting Wang Wei and all the border guards with this belief:
"Chinese land can only be guarded by Chinese people!"
