Surprising border soldiers in Tibet with gifts from home

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“Going back home” and reuniting with the family during the Spring Festival is a core value in Chinese culture. Most Chinese will put everything down and head back home at this time of the year.

Yet for soldiers who are devoted to defending this country, that's not an option. They sacrificed their own family reunions so others can have theirs.

On the southwest border of the Tibet Autonomous Region lives a group of soldiers in one of the most hostile environments. As the rest of the country is celebrating this festival, those border soldiers are still guarding their post in such an environment, patrolling the snow-covered mountains.

A soldier is on sentry duty in the Tibet Autonomous Region. /CGTN Photo

With an altitude of 4,900 meters, the oxygen level in the air is only 40 percent, which could drop to 30 percent in the winter. For people who are born and raised at lower elevations, that means their hearts need to beat three or four times as much just to bring oxygen to the entire body.

The year-long gales and UV light make it almost a “restricted area for life,” where no life forms are essentially seen within 20 kilometers. Yet those soldiers have been living, working, training and guarding here for years.

This Spring Festival, CGTN reporters paid a visit to those soldiers whose efforts are rarely noticed by the public. Many of those soldiers haven't seen their families for a long time, so CGTN contacted them, hoping to bring messages and gifts from home to their loved ones serving in the military.

What does the life of a border soldier look like? What do their families want to tell them? Check out the video above.

Director: Li Jingjing

Filmed by: Huang Yichang, Cheng Biao

Field coordinator: Phuntsok Rinchen, Li Gang

Editor: Li Jingjing, Huang Yichang

Top Image Design: Fan Chenxin

Writer: Li Jingjing

Copy Editor: Henry Weimin

Producer: Wen Yaru

Chief Editor: Liu Hui

Supervisor: Pang Xinhua