Police officer dedicated to duties in desert for over 20 years in NW China's Gansu province

Li Shengshou, head of a police station at a national geological park in the Gobi Desert in northwest China's Gansu province, has been sticking to his official task of preserving order in the park and protecting the safety of tourists for more than 20 years.

Photo shows a scene in the Yadan National Geological Park in Dunhuang city, northwest China's Gansu province. (Photo/thepaper.cn)

Li, now in his late 50s, has been heading Yadan Police Station in the province’s Yadan National Geological Park, in the tourist hotspot of Dunhuang, since 2001, when the station was originally founded. At that time, he was 39 years old.

Over the past years, Li and his colleagues completed 170 rescue missions as well as rescuing 21 people who found themselves in danger or in distress while trekking across the park.

About 180 km northwest of the city of Dunhuang, the park features yardang landforms that resemble dunes protruding from the floor of extremely arid and desert-like regions. The park is also known as the "town of demons" as visitors often describe the noise of the strong winds whistling between the yardangs as akin to the sound of hisses and howls from a ghoulish spirit.

Photo shows a remote view of Yadan Police Station. (Photo/thepaper.cn)

When the man and his colleagues first came to the park, they had access to only a tent for their work and everyday living. Soon thereafter, they decided to build a dwelling place in the caves, after discovering that transporting construction materials to build an office was too costly due to the long distances from the downtown of Dunhuang to their site in the park, deciding a makeshift rock dwelling in the cave was a better choice given the natural local conditions.

Photo shows an interior view of Yadan Police Station. (Photo/thepaper.cn)

They chose an earth mound and began to dig with the simplest tools such as shovels in March 2001. Seven months later, they excavated a narrow space of 40 square meters. In 2017, they eventually finished the construction of a 260-square-meter station, which included office rooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a dormitory, and a bathroom, while ensuring both power and water supplies.

Photo shows an interior view of Yadan Police Station. (Photo/thepaper.cn)

While some of Li's colleagues left their posts due to the harsh conditions, Li himself has remained dedicated to carrying out his duties, partly because he had a narrow escape once in the Gobi Desert in 2000 when he was the head of the Hongshijing Police Station, which was the predecessor of the current Yadan Police Station with its location roughly 100 km further northwest.

On one hot summer day that year, Li and another police officer drove to purchase their daily necessities, but their vehicle broke down halfway along the journey. They had to resort to crouching underneath their vehicle to avoid the blazing red-hot sun and painstakingly await the chance encounter of passersby, with temperatures in the region reaching as high as 70 degrees Celsius in the summertime.

Photo shows an interior view of the 40-square-meter Yadan Police Station in 2001. (Photo/Courtesy of Yadan Police Station)

Unfortunately, no other car passed by them for several days. It was only on the fourth day of the incident when Li and his colleague decided to walk toward the yardang landforms about 40 km away, hoping to come across someone or stumble upon some fresh drinking water.

Photo shows the Yadan Police Station. (Photo/thepaper.cn)

Li wore out his shoes and was eventually rescued by someone on the fifth day when a vehicle finally popped up beyond the horizon. “I felt that I was going to die,” Li recalled, noting that he even asked his colleague to have his remains interred at his hometown if the younger man should survive.

Police officers from Yadan Police Station conduct a patrol in the Yadan National Geological Park. (Photo/thepaper.cn)

Now, Li hopes that more police officers will choose to work in the police station to serve the local people and tourists with likewise dedication.