Home for Chinese New Year: A family’s celebration at a frontier sentry post

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In westernmost Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwestern China, lies a frontier garrison unit called Tasiti Sentry Post.

It is better known across the country as "Little Poplar", after a song inspired by the post, which nearly every Chinese learns in primary school.

Guarding a 5,600-kilometer-long land border and the hundreds of millions of people within it, the post has stood fast on this isolated piece of land year after year, along with its nationally renowned poplars and little else.

For everyone outside the post, the all-important Chinese New Year means rushing back home and reuniting with the whole family. But for the soldiers there, the festival is just another day at work.

Tasiti Sentry Post in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. /CGTN Photo

Sergeant Wang Kehuai has spent ten years at the post – the longest among all his comrades. Three years ago he married Zhou Di. After the birth of their son, Zhou relocated to the nearest town to the post so the family could be close together.

Family time at the frontier sentry post. /CGTN Photo

Despite the holiday, the men cannot take any leave, so Zhou and other army wives come to visit their loved ones.

The families can finally reunite at the "Little Poplar", where Wang’s young son quickly becomes the main attraction.

The long-anticipated Spring Festival reunion is celebrated with a magnificent feast, songs and laughter, and most importantly, with family. The usually quiet post is out of a sudden filled with the sound of joy and festivity.

Chinese New Year's celebration. /CGTN Photo

But the respite is soon over, and Wang's wife and son bid him farewell. The reunion was short and sweet, and has now become a happy memory.

Festive holidays are similar in many ways, but each family goes its own way to bring its members together.

CGTN Photo

This is a story of Home for Chinese New Year on CGTN Documentary.