Vigilance and vegetables boost border lifestyle

A guard at a checkpoint in the far west has improved people's diets and health by introducing new foodstuffs. Aybek Askhar reports from Tashikurgan Tajik autonomous county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of stories about China's border patrol guards, focusing on the challenges they face and their work to keep the country safe, prevent trafficking of drugs and people, and maintain friendly relations with their counterparts in neighboring countries.

Imagine that you live in a place where the average elevation is more than 4,570 meters above sea level and the oxygen content in the air is just half that in most cities in the world. Moreover, you have been living there and doing the same thing almost every day for more than 20 years.