Cave police station is a mine of excellence

Officers working at an isolated nature park endure heat and dust to perform their duties. Zhao Xinying reports.

If not for the blue name boards hanging outside the door, passersby would never imagine that a small cave dwelling in the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark, Gansu province, is a police station.

China's only police facility located in a cave is home to Li Shengshou, the station head, and 11 officers. Usually, they are the only people working and living within a radius of 100 kilometers.

The station is located in the hinterland of the Kumtag Desert, which connects western Gansu and the southeastern part of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It also lies at the edge of Lop Nor, a largely dried-up salt lake in southeastern Xinjiang. The nearest residential area is Dunhuang, a city about 160 km away.

Every five days, Li and his colleagues take turns to go to their homes in downtown Dunhuang.

They take a two-day break before returning to work at the station. The round trip takes almost half a day, but they still enjoy the journey as they are needed at both ends－by tourists in the park and by their families at home.