Couple sentries guard China's northern border during traditional holiday

Yang Yang and his wife, Meng Qingyuan, brave a freezing low temperature of minus 20 C to give festival dumplings to soldiers on duty in Heihe city, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve on Feb 18, 2015. [Photo/CFP]

For the past two decades, soldiers and their wives have been guarding China's northern border at outposts in Heihe city, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve.

This allows the sentries on duty to go back to border army headquarters to enjoy warm dumplings and send their best regards to their families via telephone.

This warm-hearted arrangement became an online hit once it was known. Some Internet users are moved by the sacrifice of the couples acting as sentries while others doubt it's proper to let civilian wives take the responsibility of well-trained, on-duty guards.