In 1998, 36-year-old Li Shengshou retired from the army and was assigned to the Hongshijing Police Station in the depths of the Kumtag Desert by the Gansu Provincial Public Security Department. Soon after, he led the establishment of the Fangshankou Police Station.
These two police stations are located in the Gobi Desert in a no-man's land, and the environment is very harsh. Later, Li Shengshou established the Yadan National Geopark Scenic Area Public Security Police Station, and the conditions were even more severe.
Li Shengshou Scenic Area has magnificent landscapes, while Yadan Adventure Scenic Area presents a unique landform landscape. All thanks to a trip by a Swedish explorer.
He passed through the mound area and asked a Uighur guide for the name of the place. The guide told him that the name of the place there was Yaldan, which means steep and steep hill. The Swedish explorer misheard it as "Yadan" and named the landform after it, which was included in his book.
Yadan is a kind of wind erosion landform widely distributed in dry areas, and there are 20,000 square kilometers of Yadan landform group in Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places in China. Through the power of nature, the Yadan landscape has become like ancient castle buildings, and some of them are like people, birds and animals, presenting a stunning scene.
After Li Shengshou was discharged from the army, he became a member of the Dunhuang Public Security Department. His area includes the Dunhuang Yadan landform and the vast area of Lop Nur. In 2000, Dunhuang City invested heavily in the protective development of Dunhuang Yadan landform, and successfully established Dunhuang Yadan National Geopark in 2001, covering an area of 39840 square kilometers, of which the area of the geological relics protection area is 5269 square kilometers.
This is the jurisdiction of the Yadan Police Station, which Director Li Shengshou is responsible for.
When the Yadan police station was first established, there were only two police officers and three auxiliary police. Although it is called a police station, it lacks any infrastructure. When Li Shengshou and the others arrived, there was no electricity, no water, no houses, and the communication signal was very poor.
Every night, people at the police station can only spend the night in tents. The Yadan area also has another nickname - "Devil's City". Winds often blow and swirl chunks of sand and pound against the rocky hills, making a strange and terrifying sound, like the cry of demons and monsters, reminiscent of those terrifying creatures.
Hence the name "Devil's Town". Since the Yadan landform is usually located at the tuyere, it is not uncommon for a level 10 gale to be there. Once the wind blows, it is almost impossible for people to stand, and the belongings they carry with them can easily be blown away.
A Swedish couple's exploration of Dunhuang Yadan impressed them by the terrifying sounds of the Yadan landscape, while Li Shengshou and the rest of the Yadan police station chose to take root here for a long time and adapt to the strange cries of the wind.
Although they also had difficulty falling asleep when they first arrived, they gradually got used to the environment over time. Although the wind howling of ghosts and wolves is acceptable, the physical destruction of the wind is impossible to ignore.
Li Shengshou's tent could not withstand the strong winds, and was often blown out of holes, and their bodies were covered with a layer of sand, and pots and pans would be blown everywhere. However, they were still lucky enough to pick up something.
In the face of the harsh environment of the sandstorm, Li Shengshou and the police station personnel still stuck to their posts and moved forward bravely. Despite the extremely difficult living conditions, they decided to stick with it considering the needs of the visitors in the park.
Without modern equipment and facilities, they can only rely on simple tools and methods. Kerosene lamps became their only means of lighting, pickled cabbage became their staple food, and water transportation from 150 kilometers away became their source of water.
They had no house and could only dig caves in the rocks. In the face of the hardness of the mound and the scorching heat, they chiseled little by little with pickaxes, dug little by little, and never gave up.
In the summer, the surface temperature in Yadan reached 70 degrees, and eggs could be fried in a few minutes on the ground, but these difficulties did not stop them. Their persistence and bravery have become a beautiful scenery in Yadan Scenic Area.
In the Gobi Desert of Yadan, there is the only hand-dug cave police station in the country. The construction process of this police station was full of hardships and challenges. Although the cave was largely dug after fighting day and day after half a Chinese New Year's Eve and night with oil lamps lit, the cave suddenly collapsed when the police station sign was installed, and Li Shengshou fell from the roof of the cave and was crushed under the sand and gravel.
Colleagues rushed to the rescue and found him unconscious. After waking up, Li Shengshou resolutely refused to let his colleagues take him to the hospital, saying that he was physically strong and not so easily injured, so he continued to work with his colleagues.
Their actions have confirmed the sense of responsibility that requires the creation of conditions without conditions. Li Shengshou was in the cave of Yadan, and he worked for 20 years.
The Yadan Police Station now has a cave, so that they are no longer afraid of the wind overturning their tents, and they can usually reunite in the cave, chat happily and relax. Although there were only a few people, when they came out of the cave, they were faced with a barren hill and desert, and only loneliness and silence kept them company.
In addition to this, water needs to be transported from afar, without a refrigerator, food cannot be stored for a long time, and in order to eat better, they also need to travel far to purchase food and other goods frequently.
From the police station to the shopping spots, it is a no-man's land and lacks basic living conditions. If something goes wrong with the car on the road, it can be life-threatening.
Li Shengshou and his comrades-in-arms encountered a car breakdown on the way out to buy, and communication was interrupted. They waited for rescue for four days, but no one passed. They were so exhausted that they could only desperately walk to Yadan, forty kilometers away.
The desert heat made their shoes ungummed, and they could only walk barefoot, thirsty, looking for salt water to moisten their lips, hungry and weak, and looking for the rhizomes of desert plants to fill their stomachs.
They were in terrible physical condition, but at the last minute, a minecart appeared, and they were taken to the hospital exhausted. Despite the dangers, they were eventually rescued.
In the middle of the endless desert, there is a place known as the Yadan Police Station, where the police officers endure difficult conditions and great dangers, but they never flinch.
Their perseverance is like a beacon that illuminates the lives of many people. One day, a motorcycle explorer from Jiayuguan came to the police station, and he wanted to explore the ancient city of Loulan alone.
Li Shengshou told him that there is no way to go to the ancient city of Loulan, and it is better not to go without a tour guide, because the geological conditions there are very special, it is easy to get lost, and in a large area of hillocks, the compass will also lose its effect, and if a person goes in without logistical support, his life will be in danger.
This is not alarmist, the ancient city of Loulan died out precisely because of the diversion of the river, which caused a drastic ecological deterioration. Although it is dangerous, Li Shengshou and his colleagues still stick to it and help people.
Their perseverance makes people feel warm and hopeful.
Entering the hinterland of Dunhuang Yadan, explorers of the ancient city of Loulan need to be cautious about the interference of magnets underground. Once the compass loses its function, they will be disoriented, and survival becomes extremely difficult in this dry, waterless, harsh climate.
A plane flying from Chongqing to Urumqi disappeared over the Yadan area of Dunhuang, and it was later discovered that the course of the plane had changed from northwest to south. This area, which includes the Kunlun Mountains and Lop Nur, is particularly characterized by magnetic field disturbances.
The scientist Peng Jiamu and the explorer Yu Chunshun both lost their way in Lop Nur and eventually died. Therefore, the environment of Dunhuang Yadan is also full of risks and requires explorers to be more careful.
Pengamu, a motorbike explorer, was a persistent man, and he did not listen to Li Shengshou's advice and resolutely went deep into the Yadan area. Li Shengshou's warning seemed to have stimulated his desire to explore even more.
Soon after, the explorers returned, and instead of abandoning his plan, he begged Li Shengshou and them to look for him if he did not return for six or seven days, even if it was his body that was found.
After saying these words, the explorer was relieved to embark on the journey into the depths of Yadan again. However, on the third day of the explorer's entry into Yadan, a strong storm blew in Dunhuang Yadan, and the sky was full of sand and dust and flying rubble statues that were about to collapse the cave of the police station.
In such bad weather, people have to hide in caves to avoid the wind, but this way of sheltering from the wind is not completely reassuring, because accidents can happen at any time.