Cave police station is a mine of excellence

From a tent to a cave

When the station was established by the Dunhuang public security bureau in 1999, the location was even more distant－300 km from Dunhuang－than it is nowadays. Li, who was 37 at the time, was appointed station head.

As a Dunhuang native, he had heard about the difficult conditions in the place where he was going to work, but the reality was even worse than he had imagined.

He and his four colleagues had to work and live in tents as there were no other shelters in the desert; there was no electricity or tap water either, so the officers had to use a single kerosene lamp, and they had to transport salty water 150 km and store it in a cellar.

Meanwhile, the road to Dunhuang was rocky, making it difficult for Li and his peers to travel back and forth to their homes.

Even now, the biggest challenges come from the extreme weather, Li said. In summer, the air temperature can reach 45 C, and the land temperature can rise to 70 C－hot enough to boil eggs. In winter, which lasts several months, the temperature usually falls to -25 C or lower.

"There are no birds in the sky and the wind blows all year round, carrying sand and stones," he said. "It is really like living on an isolated island."

In 2001, to improve their living and working conditions, Li and his colleagues decided to build an office by digging a cave in one of the small hills at the park's entrance.

The lack of electricity and other power sources meant they had to use hand tools, but after working for almost a year, they eventually had a 40-square-meter cave dwelling－the original version of today's police station.

Though the place was still shabby, everyone was content and excited, as "we finally had a 'home' in the isolated area", Li said.

There were two reasons for digging a cave as a place to work and live: the officers had no construction materials, such as bricks, concrete, iron or cement, to build houses because the poor road conditions at the time made it difficult to transport materials to the park; moreover, a cavelike structure was more suitable and comfortable, given the local climate.

"The cave dwelling not only keeps us warm in winter and cool in summer, but also has a good dampening effect on external noise. That is a great advantage as the night wind in the park sounds like the wailing of ghosts and the howling of wolves," Li said.

He added that the officers could barely hear the unnerving sounds after they moved into the cave.

In the following 15 years, the cave underwent three renovation and reconstruction programs, finally turning it into today's 260-square-meter structure. Now, it has better working and living facilities－such as electricity and running water－that cater to the daily needs of the station's 12 staff members.