Xiluoqi maintenance crew write on the snow-covered ground "safe trip" in Chinese characters.[Photo/Xinhua]

On Jan 8, the staff of the Xiluoqi maintenance team in Tahe county, Heilongjiang province, carried out work at the 497 kilometer junction of the Nenjiang-Greater Khingan Forest Railway.

Affiliated to China Raiway Harbin Group's Jiagedaqi construction section, the Xiluoqi team is responsible for some of the toughest maintenance work deep inside the most frigid reaches of the Greater Khingan Mountains, where winter temperatures hover below minus 30 C. This remote section of the line can only be reached by train, and no traces of human habitation can be seen for as far as the eye can see.

The 10 staff members here are in charge of maintaining 11.2 kilometers of railway, including a 1,160-meter-long railway tunnel to the "Arctic" Mohe, Xiluoqi Ridge No 2 Tunnel, which is the entrance to the Nenjiang-Greater Khingan Forest Railway thoroughfare.