PLA soldiers serving along Qinghai-Tibet highway

The year 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Sichuan-Tibet highway and Qinghai-Tibet highway.

Over 60 years ago, 110,000 road construction workers sweated and shed blood for this road 4,000 meters above sea level, and more than 3,000 workers sacrificed their lives. The Sichuan-Tibet highway and the Qinghai-Tibet highway were completed in December 1954 with an overall length of 4,360 kilometers. The 2,000 kilometers Qinghai-Tibet highway is the highest road on frozen soils.

Now, soldiers stationed along the Qinghai-Tibet highway take 80 percent of the transportation tasks of the PLA troops in Tibet.

The oxygen content in the air on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau is less than half of that of the inland; the annual average temperature there is about minus 6 Celsius degrees; and the annual average of strong wind days is over 120.