On Saerbulake, Yumin County, Tacheng District, Xinjiang, 8 kilometers southeast of boundary marker No. 171 on the Sino-Kazakhstan border, there is a house made of dark brown clods. It is the only residence in a radius of 50 square kilometers, in which 83-year-old Wei Deyou and his wife, Liu Jinghao, live. The couple has been living here to silently guard the western border of China for more than half a century. 

Burning youth in no man's land 

In the 1960s, Sino-Soviet relations were tense. What was clearly China's territory was considered a "disputed area," trespassed upon or even encroached on by troops.

To "guard every inch of the motherland," in 1964, Wei, at his 24, with some other 30 comrades-in-arms, was sent to guard the border here. 

Saerbulake is a sparsely-vegetated desolate beach in an extremely harsh environment with rampant mosquitoes in summer, raging wind and snow in winter, flying sand, rolling sand pebbles, incessant wind and the occasional howl of wolves. The open terrain and lack of natural barriers make it easy for herdsmen and animals to overstep the border when they migrate in spring and autumn. Under such harsh conditions, work here is full of challenges.

Wei Deyou (first right in the front row) and his comrades-in-arms in February 1964.