Officers endure extremes to keep Yunnan border safe

At 6:40 am, a police officer is on duty at the Menglian Gate located at the border in Southwest China's Yunnan province. [By Zhang Jing/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Whether chilly or scorching, a group of police officers take turns working around the clock all year long at the Menglian Gate, a mainland pass connecting Pu'er city in Southwest China's Yunnan province with Southeast Asian countries, to guard safety at the border. Their work has tightened amid efforts to control and prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At about 11 am on a summer day, although the temperature outside the Menglian Gate reached 47 degrees centigrade while the temperature inside the protective clothing the officers were wearing reached 60 degrees, they had already been on duty for over three hours to ensure ruling out any potential risks.

The officers worked in small groups to check identifications, as well as vehicles. On average, it takes five minutes to check one vehicle.

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A police officer patrols at night. [By Zhang Jing/For chinadaily.com.cn]

At 9 pm, it started raining. The officers spent two hours patrolling amid rubber trees even though the road was slippery and it was heavily damp.

"I was born and grew up at the border. It is my duty to safeguard the border," one police officer said, adding that in March, officers captured three drug dealers at a crossing in the area they patrolled.

At 4 am the next day, the officers watched closely using a high definition video monitoring system in case of any smuggling.

"If I detected any abnormal situation, I would inform my colleagues who were patrolling," one officer said.

The officers can rest in a 10 square-meter tent. Inside the tent is a folding table on which there is a bottle of lotion to keep the mosquitoes away, a box of mosquito repellent incense and a kettle. The police need to spray powders around the tents to keep pests, including snakes, rats and ants, away.