Wild lives with wildlife

Police charged with protecting the environment of Hoh Xil on the isolated Qinghai-Tibet Plateau encounter hardships and rewards. Liu Xiangrui reports.

They were elevated - in every sense. Zhan Jianglong and colleagues stayed up late to celebrate at an altitude approaching 4,600 meters. The police were delighted that Hoh Xil, where Zhan has spent two decades as an environmental-protection officer, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage on July 8.

Zhan and his peers live and work in the Wudaoliang Protection Station operated by the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve Administration, which manages 45,000 square kilometers of isolated grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.