Chinese New Year's Eve is just another ordinary day for An Guangfu, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) company commander.

He rose early to stand guard with his deputies so his soldiers will have ample time to watch the Spring Festival evening gala broadcast live on China Central Television.

Wearing his heavy military coat and goggles for blizzard vision, An went out on patrol at the world's highest frontier sentry post.

Dubbed "Shenxianwan", or Immortal Bay, the post is located 5,380 meters above sea level in China's far west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

No one in the barracks can return home for Spring Festival, the most important traditional Chinese holiday for family reunion, as heavy snow in the Karakorum-Kunlun Mountain Ranges in southwest Xinjiang has blocked all escape routes this winter. The soldiers will have two months' leave in the summer.

"For us, celebrating Spring Festival at home is often an unattainable luxury," said An, a 31-year-old from east China's Anhui Province. It takes An nearly a week to get home by train.

Instead, An has to settle for a brief telephone call to wish his wife and two-year-old son a happy new year.

An got married in 2004 but he did not even make it to his own wedding. "When our wedding date was drawing near, I was ordered to carry out an emergency task and could not return home," he said.

As all their friends and relatives had been invited to the wedding ceremony, it could not be canceled, according to village traditions. The wedding went ahead as scheduled without the bridegroom.

Squad leader Xie Wensong, from central China's Hunan Province, does not have a wife and children to miss.

The 24-year-old has focused his efforts on memorizing a song by Taiwanese popstar Jay Chou for the soldiers' own version of the Spring Festival gala.

Xie and his fellow soldiers sleep for less than five hours a day because of persistent altitude sickness.

"I often wake up at midnight feeling suffocated. Then, I find it impossible to get back to sleep," said Xie.

The amount of oxygen at 5,380 meters is only about 46 percent of that in Beijing and the lowest temperature in winter can reach minus 50 degrees centigrade. Snow falls even in June when people in most Chinese cities are sweating in the mid-summer heat.

An said his soldiers would make dumplings, a traditional family food on the Chinese New Year Eve, after watching the Spring Festival evening gala. They plan to celebrate the arrival of the Lunar New Year two hours later than in Beijing as unofficial local time in the western region is two hours behind the capital.

"I cherish the experience of standing guard for my country at 5,380 meters," said soldier Wang Libing from northwest China's Shaanxi Province, while playing snooker.

"My parents are happy and proud of me. They understand that I cannot go home for the Spring Festival," he said.

Source: Xinhua