Blistered heels don't deter female honor guard training

Female honor guards are trained at a camp in Beijing ahead of a military parade planned for September 3. [Photo/81.cn]

Sixty-two female honor guards who for the first time will participate in the Sept 3 parade are making every effort to perform perfectly that day.

Two-thirds of the female honor guards are new recruits, who, when training started, showed an obvious gap in performance compared to the male honor guards in the same unit.

The female soldiers trained about 10 hours a day to catch up with the males to achieve a better synchronized movement.

All the members are determined. Wang Yidi, one of the diligent guards, insisted on practicing even when she had many burst blisters on her heels.

When the team leader required her to rest, she strongly asked to go back to the field and said: "I cut off the shoe heel to let the blisters out, so it won't bother me again!"

Honor guards have been training through the hot summer and the intensive training has made them slim and tanned.

A couple of months ago, before they started training, the soldiers were measured for tailored new uniforms.

They tried on the newly-made uniforms in August but were surprised to learn that all the uniforms now are too large.

"At first we thought the measurements were wrong. But soon we realized it's because we all lost too much weight. I lost about five kilograms," said Zhao Ying, one of the female honor guards who will march in the parade.