Village patrols guard sovereign land with dedication

For most Chinese people, the country's border is only a line on a map. But for people living in Yulmed township, Xizang autonomous region, sitting among the closest townships to the China-India border, the meaning of Chinese territory is more concrete.

Since the 1980s, grazing and patrolling the border have been a practice of the local people who live in a township in the southern lower reaches of the Himalayas.

Lhapa Tsering, leader of one of the Yulmed border patrols, said everyone wants to join the team. "In the eyes of the villagers, it's an honor," he said.

Each team normally consists of eight or nine villagers who always carry the national flag with them during the patrols. These patrols have become better organized and standardized in recent years, said 33-year-old Lhapa Tsering.

"We place the flags at key spots when necessary to claim the territory. They show others that the land belongs to China and there are people who care about it and guard it," he said.

The villagers' patrol routes are either in the steep mountains or valleys covered with dense untouched forests. During the patrols they sometimes need to make their way through flooded rivers and landslides. Very often, it takes a few days to complete a patrol task. In case of heavy rain or snow, for instance, it may take more than a week, said Lhapa Tsering who is a herdsman.

"The villagers are more familiar with the routes and conditions in the mountains and forests so no suspicious activities can escape our eyes. And we all understand that we are protecting the land for all Chinese people," he said.

Besides young men, many young women have also signed up to become border guards. In 2021, Tenzin Yangjen moved to Yulmed's Niulintang village, which has 11 households, with her husband. She immediately applied to join the village's border patrol team, which was established in 2019.

"All of the village's eight border guards are women. We can take on full responsibilities although the mountains are very difficult to climb sometimes," the 36-year-old said proudly.

Since 2024, a regular collaboration mechanism has been established between immigration police officers and border guards. They jointly conduct five to six hours of border patrols every week, and the cumulative patrol mileage has exceeded 1,800 kilometers.