China News Service, Lanzhou, January 8 (Jia Guoqing, Liu Bo) In early January, a large area of ​​cold wave swept through Subei Mongolian Autonomous County in Jiuquan City, Gansu, and the temperature dropped to minus 21°C.

In the endless Kumtag Desert, the Dunhuang Railway meanders forward in the whistling wind.

At five o'clock in the morning, Cao Wen, the foreman of the Jiayuguan Section of the Lanzhou Railway Bureau, set off with the workers.

　　Today, they are rushing to a sand-clearing point 85 kilometers away.

Sitting in the car, you can still hear the roar of the wind outside the window.

Outside the frosty car window, the world was already frozen, and the air seemed to be frozen.

　　In the section from Yangguan Station to Shashangou Station on Dunhuang Railway, floating dust, blowing sand and sandstorms occur frequently, especially in winter and spring every year. There is a strong wind in 3 days on average. The highest wind force is above 8, 5, Level 6 sandstorms "visit" almost every day.

When the strong wind passed, the fine sand poured into the railway.

Railway workers at the sand-clearing scene.

Photo by Liu Bo

　　The Dunhuang Railway, which opened in December 2019, is an important link between the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, and it is also the most convenient channel connecting Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and Tibet.

Clearing away the accumulated sand on the 12-kilometer line between Yangguan Station and Shashangou Station in time is an important task for the 14 workers in the Subei Line Maintenance Zone of the Jiayuguan Section of the Lanzhou Railway Bureau.

　　At 7 o'clock, the sand cleaning operation started.

Workers wearing collars, headgear, and masks walked up the line against the wind and waved their shovel to clean the yellow sand on the line.

At this time, the biting cold wind blew the whistle, wrapped in sand, and "rustled" on the cotton-padded clothes. The strong wind blew his face like a knife.

Employee Song Weiying said that the yellow sand that was raised was so choking that people couldn't breathe. Even if "fully armed" like today, the fine sand would still get into the hair, ears, and mouth.

　　Song Weiying cleaned the yellow sand that buried the rail parts and sleepers out of the line with shovel after shovel. Every step he took, he would dig out about 3 shovels until the rail pillows and rail parts were exposed from the accumulated sand.

"Today, we will complete the task of cleaning the sand of 3 kilometers." Cao Wen said, 3 kilometers of sand requires a dozen people to dig tens of thousands of shovels.

It has only been one year since the line was opened, and the employees' palms have worn out thick calluses.

In cold weather, the cotton caps and masks of railway workers were frozen into frost.

Photo by Liu Bo

　　At 10 o'clock, Qingsha was in full swing.

The heat exhaled by the workers turned into frost when they were cold, and the collars and cotton caps they wore slowly condensed into ice flowers with the breath, bit by bit, piece by piece, like edelweiss in full bloom.

　　As time passed, people and wind, people and sand repeatedly competed.

The yellow sand was lifted up high by one shovel; the sleepers were exposed one by one.

　　At 12:30, the sand cleaning operation was nearing completion.

The workers picked up their broomsticks and began to sweep the yellow sand that was scattered on the rails.

At this time, a peculiar scene appeared. Almost without exception, the collars of more than a dozen employees stood hard in the cold wind.

It turned out that everyone’s thick cotton-padded jacket was already sweaty, and the sweat that permeated the collar was quickly frozen by the cold wind, and it became a "stubborn collar."

Worker Zhou Chang jokingly said that if the sweat-soaked quilted jacket was taken off and stood in the wind for a few minutes, the quilted jacket would also stand.

　　At 13:00, the 6-hour sand cleaning operation ended.

Cao Wen picked up the thermos cup, raised his neck and drank a few mouthfuls of warm water.

Here, the vacuum flask is essential equipment.

If you change to mineral water or a regular glass, it will freeze into ice in less than an hour.

　　On the way from get off work, Cao Wen and his fellow workers fell asleep in a bumpy car.

At this moment, the raging wind softened, and even though he was an "old opponent", he couldn't bear to disturb these hard-working "Clean Sanders".

(Finish)