Meet Harbin's all-woman bomb squad

Over the past 11 years, Xu Can has taken part in 184 explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tasks and more than 1,800 on-site inspections with her colleagues.

Xu, 36, is a member of an EOD team comprising seven policewomen at the Harbin Public Security Bureau in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

Due to their performances that bettered their male colleagues, Harbin Public Security Bureau founded the team in 2008.

For them, every operation seems like a life-or-death gamble.

"Compared to the old shells with known locations, the most dangerous situation is entering the scene of an anonymous threat of explosives," said Xu. "Everything is unknown. We can't make sure whether there are explosives or the type and location of the explosives."

Each time before they remove explosives during training and work, the policewomen need two teammates to help them put on 38-kilogram suits.

The team has have been invited to join on-site inspection tasks at events all around the country, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and Hangzhou G20 Summit.

"It is not easy work," said Liu Suqin, head of the team. "It requires thousands of stand-up and squat-down checks each day. All of us are suffering from slipped discs."

For the seven policewomen of an average age of 40, their biggest regret is that they can't provide much time to their families, especially to their young children.

"I seldom talk about my job with my parents because I don't want them to worry about me every day," said Xue Ying, 37. "I can't remember how many times my daughter fell asleep at kindergarten because I couldn't get her home on time."

"In fact, when we are facing dangerous situations, we feel scared, but we have to keep going because of our responsibilities," said team member Lyv Yan.