The Changbai Mountains, in northeast China's Jilin Province, are covered by vast, wild forests. The mountainous region has chilly, snowy weather for about nine months of the year. The lowest temperature is below -40 C in winter. In 2005, Huang Yi, a native of southwest China's Sichuan Province, relocated to the Changbai Mountains to work at the Mount Hengshan frontier inspection station. For more than two decades, Huang has dedicated himself to helping protect China's territorial border, administered by Jilin Exit-Entry Frontier Border Inspection General Station. As he works in the wild forests, Huang often thinks of his wife, Wang Rongxiang, who takes care of their children at their home, which is more than 100 kilometers from the station. If a boundary marker represents a component of the territorial line of his country, family is the eternal marker that he treasures deep in his heart.
Taking Root
Huang was born in 1987 in Pengzhou, a county-level city administered by Sichuan's capital, Chengdu. In December 2005, he took the long journey to China's northeastern border area, and he started to work in the Changbai Mountains.
Cliffs and frozen rivers are along the route Huang patrols every day. In winter, the deep, heavy snow can reach his thighs. "Spring Festival holidays can be the hardest time for those of us who are on duty. On Chinese New Year's Eve, we stand still at the highest position in our station. We look at the lights, shining from houses situated at the foot of mountains, in silence," Huang says.
Huang met Wang, a young woman from Pucheng, a county in southeast China's Fujian Province, a few years after he began working in the Changbai Mountains. They quickly fell in love. In 2008, when Sichuan was ravaged by the magnitude-8 earthquake, Huang's hometown, Pengzhou, was also severely stricken by the disaster. Wang did not hesitate to travel to Pengzhou to support Huang's family. Three years later, Huang and Wang got married. Huang returned to his station shortly after their wedding. Wang stayed in Sichuan, to look after her mother-in-law.
During Spring Festival in 2015, Wang visited Mount Hengshan frontier inspection station for the first time. She traveled by train for 30-plus hours before taking a bus, for another six hours, to the station. On that Chinese New Year's Eve, Huang used an induction cooker to boil instant dumplings for his wife. As they were eating their special dinner, Huang pointed at the lights, down the mountains, and told his wife, "We are safeguarding the peace of thousands of families." It was at that moment Wang fully understood the true meaning of her husband's work.
After her visit to the Changbai Mountains, Wang decided to move northward so she could be closer to her husband. She moved into Songjianghe, a town in Fusong County, in Baishan, a city in Jilin. It was the community closest to Huang's station. As a woman who was raised in the warm weather of south China, Wang had a difficult time getting used to the extremely cold temperatures in the Changbai Mountains. "My husband lives in the station. He normally returns to our house only one or two days a month. But every time I think of him being lonely, up the mountain, I tell myself to hold on," Wang says.
In the winter of 2018, Wang established a public welfare tutoring program, and she began teaching children from families in the border area during the winter and summer vacations. She contacted her friends and former schoolmates in Fujian, asking for donations of books, stationery and winter clothing for the children in the Changbai Mountains. She is pleased two teachers have volunteered to help her teach the children.
"Many years ago, I brought some camellia seeds from my hometown. I hoped to grow them in the courtyard of my new home. However, the weather in the Changbai Mountains is too cold. I persisted for several years, until I finally succeeded one spring, when the flowers blossomed. An aunt, one of my neighbors, said, 'The camellia has found its home here!' I felt so proud," Wang recalls.
Great Honor
As he lives far away from his wife, children and parents, Huang inevitably feels "guilty" for missing opportunities to look after his family. Wang comforts him, by saying, "You safeguard the nation's border while protecting countless families. It is a great honor for me, and for your family, to support you as you complete such a significant task."
Wang gave birth to their first child, a girl, Huang Manyun, on December 31, 2012. Their second child, a boy, Huang Xiaoxing, was born on February 14, 2017. Due to his work obligations, Huang Yi could not accompany his wife to hospital either time she gave birth.
To make it up to his family, every time Huang Yi returns home, he spares no effort in helping with housework chores. On each precious day he is at home, he cooks for his family, and he washes the dishes and cleans the house. He also makes sure the faucets and lamps are working properly.
Huang Xiaoxing remembers the Spring Festival, a few years ago, when his father stayed at home for several days. The boy was curious why his father did not have to return to his "home" up the mountain. In Huang Xiaoxing's mind, his father's home was the station, not the small house he inhabited with his mother and sister. Huang Yi almost cried when he realized what his son was thinking.
Huang Manyun once wrote in a homework assignment, "Dad is accompanied by the stars on his way as he patrols around the boundary marker. Mom gains happiness from her diligent work benefitting our neighbors. Although they cannot stay with me all the time, I know both of my parents are safeguarding the greater 'family.'"
Huang Yi likes to discuss the beautiful picture drawn by his daughter. In the picture, Huang Yi, wearing his uniform, is holding high a national flag, as he stands by a boundary marker. Huang Manyun wrote the following as a brief introduction, "This is my father, who protects the border of our motherland."
As he has lived in the Mount Hengshan frontier inspection station for so many years, Huang Yi says his life has become firmly tied to his responsibilities of safeguarding his country's territorial border. "Now, the living conditions of our station have been improved a lot. We can have video chats with our families in our spare time," he adds.
Photos from Interviewee
(Women of China English Monthly March 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
