Patrolling Xizang's punishing peaks

In Pumaqangtang, water boils at 60 C, oxygen is a luxury and the landscape is an almost permanent white sheet of ice. At 5,373 meters above sea level in the Xizang autonomous region on the border with Bhutan, it is home to the highest police border station in China.

The brutal, unforgiving conditions in Pumaqangtang have given it the ominous moniker of being a "forbidden zone for life".

But for Wu Hui, 27, as she graduated from a police training academy, it was the only place she wanted to be.

"Don't you want to push your limits?" she asked her fellow graduates."Don't you think it would be cool to work at the roof of the world?"

Her resolve was infectious. In February 2024, Wu convinced two other recent graduates — Li Tianjiao, 29, and Li Hongyan, 25 — to volunteer for the remote outpost. In doing so, they made history as the first female police officers to serve at the station since its founding in 2012.