The Garrison Soldiers Beside This "Silk Ribbon" Guard the Peace of the Nation's Frontier with Loyalty
From "Snowy-Sea Island" to Open Road
■ Jiang Dehong, PLA Daily Correspondent Wei Yinchu, Wu Peiyuan
Soldiers repainting a boundary marker. Photo by Wu Peiyuan
In early autumn, the Changbai Mountains are layered in lush green, and the Yalu River shimmers with blue waves. National Highway G331 winds like a silk ribbon along the forest-lined riverbank. The No. 8 Sluice Outpost (八号闸哨所) of an Army border defense brigade is situated beside this "silk ribbon," where generation after generation of soldiers have loyally guarded the peace of the nation's frontier.
"In winter, the No. 8 Sluice Outpost can reach extreme temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius. The mountain closure period lasts more than seven months a year. It was once a 'snowy-sea island' (雪海孤岛) — cut off by poor transportation and harsh conditions." First Sergeant Xie Fahui introduced the situation to reporters: snowmelt freezing and thawing leaves the road surface riddled with potholes; in some places, landslides directly block the road. Difficulty traveling, danger during border patrols, and difficulty resupplying have long been persistent problems for the outpost's duty and patrol operations.
How could the "snowy-sea island" be turned into an open road?
In recent years, Jilin Province has promoted an integrated road-network-embankment construction model (路、网、堤一体化融合建设模式), continuously addressing shortfalls in border infrastructure. Leveraging the G331 National Highway quality-upgrade project, military and civilian authorities jointly advanced the integrated construction of road renovation, embankment reinforcement, disaster management, and smart monitoring, allowing the deep-mountain outpost to leave behind its history of isolated seclusion and difficult travel.
In addition, an integrated monitoring system was established along the route, a border traffic big-data control platform was built, and long-term performance observation stations were used to achieve dynamic monitoring of potential hazards, data sharing, and precise control.
The morning mist over the mountain forest had not yet lifted when the outpost's patrol detachment assembled and stood ready. Today, in addition to routine patrol duties, the soldiers had a special task — repainting the boundary markers.
The reporter boarded a patrol vehicle and traveled along G331 deep into the mountain forest. The sky had been clear moments before, but thick fog suddenly surged up from the valley, dropping visibility to less than 20 meters. Upon reaching a surveillance tower near the border, the patrol detachment stopped to conduct an equipment inspection. Political Instructor Liu Da called the outpost's monitoring room over the radio: "Visibility at Point No. 1 has dropped — is the image clear?"
A reply came quickly over the radio: "Image is clear. Infrared mode has been switched on. Signal is stable!"
"In the past, when we encountered weather like this, patrols relied entirely on experienced veterans to find the way." Liu Da told the reporter that in recent years, through military-civilian co-construction and resource-sharing mechanisms, the outpost's smart border defense (智慧边防) construction has been comprehensively upgraded, achieving real-time border situation monitoring, dynamic control, and precise response.
After completing the equipment inspection, the patrol vehicles continued forward. Upon reaching a section of alpine meadow, the vehicles could go no further, and the soldiers had to dismount and continue on foot.
A light rain fell steadily in the mountains. The meadow surface was soft and slippery, and the border guide poles appeared and disappeared in the thick fog. Through the grassland, a steep slope loomed ahead — dozens of meters high, with a gradient of nearly 80 degrees. This was the most treacherous section of the entire patrol route; the soldiers used ropes to successfully cross it.
After more than an hour of arduous trekking, the group finally reached the target boundary marker.
Xie Fahui stepped forward and crouched down, taking a can of red paint from his pack. He is about to be discharged from service — this would likely be the last time in his military career that he repainted a boundary marker.
Xie Fahui loaded a brush with red paint and traced stroke by stroke along the grooves of the characters "中国" (China). When the brush reached the year "2009," his movements became especially deliberate. "When I first arrived at the outpost, patrols relied entirely on two legs." Xie Fahui said with feeling. More than ten years of frontier garrison duty allowed him to witness the leapfrog development of border defense infrastructure construction. From the rutted and dangerous roads of the past to the smooth and straight thoroughfare of today — this is a vivid microcosm of strengthening and developing the border (强边兴边).
On the return journey, Xie Fahui told the reporter that the outpost's patrol route has 105 bends in total. "I remember clearly exactly where every single bend turns and how sharp it is. I'm about to be discharged, and I hope the new soldiers can carry this baton well and guard our boundary markers."
It was the summer holiday season, and tour buses packed with visitors traveled in an unbroken stream along G331 toward Changbai Mountain's Tianchi. Deep in the forest, the frontier guardsmen stood as straight and firm as pines. The distant clamor had not yet reached this place, but the soldiers understood clearly: that scene of laughter, of a prosperous and peaceful nation (国泰民安), is precisely what they are defending with their youth and loyalty.
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**Reference Information**
The G331 Border Open Tourism Corridor (G331沿边开放旅游大通道) is built along the Jilin section of National Highway G331. It begins at the Hunjiangkou Bridge on the Jilin-Liaoning provincial border and ends at Lanjiatangzi in Hunchun City on the Jilin-Heilongjiang provincial border. It winds along "one mountain and two rivers" (一山两江) — Changbai Mountain, the Yalu River, and the Tumen River — passing through four regions and ten counties (cities, districts): Tonghua City, Baishan City, the Changbai Mountain Protection and Development Zone, and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. It links 216 border villages, 16 ports of entry, and 45 scenic areas rated 3A or above, with a total length of 1,240 kilometers.
Since G331 opened, it has helped specialty products such as Ji'an ice grapes, Yanbian spicy kimchi (辣白菜), and Changbai Mountain ginseng "leave the village and enter the city, and reach the whole country," driving the addition of more than 100 specialty guesthouses, farmhouse restaurants, and specialty product shops along the route, and realizing industrial layout along the road and prosperity for residents along the road. In expanding employment opportunities, nearly 3,000 jobs were provided during the construction period through the "work-for-relief" (以工代赈) model. After completion, the highway provides nearly 5,000 jobs for villagers in the sale of mountain goods, specialty products, and handicrafts, as well as in highway maintenance, service area management, and related industries such as tourism, dining, and accommodation. In driving cultural prosperity, G331 has promoted the development of health and wellness, residential tourism, and medical industries in border areas; through the hosting of signature events such as the Border Marathon and the "Secret Realm Relay Ride" (秘境传骑) cycling relay race, it has converted event traffic into economic growth, injecting development vitality into border areas.