Border soldiers reveal their higher calling

Life is tough for the men who guard China's mountainous border with India, high on the hinterland of Tibet. Despite the constant dangers posed by the harsh high-altitude conditions, the soldiers' strong sense of camaraderie and the friendship of the local people have led many to regard the barren, windswept landscape as a second home. Li Yang reports from Gamba county in the Tibet autonomous region.

Their lives are even harder than the yaks'," said Chokyi, during her weekly visit to a border post halfway up a mountain 2 kilometers from her home in Tranglung, Gamba county.

A border defense company of the People's Liberation Army has been stationed at the post in the Tibet autonomous region - about 20 kilometers from China's border with India - since 1961.