"Railway guardians" work on cliff to ensure railway safety

Dangling on a rope, railway worker Zhang Lei knocks off loose stones with the stick on the Yueshan section of the railway from Taiyuan to Jiaozuo on March 16, 2017. Meet the "Railway Guardians." These are the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau workers tasked with checking and clearing the tracks as they wind through the mountains. Equipped with ropes and steel chisels, they work on the cliffs to dislodge loose rocks or set up nets to catch falling stones in order to ensure the safety of trains. The railway from Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi province, to Jiaozuo, central China's Henan province, is an important channel for coal transportation from Shanxi to other provinces. More than 100 kilometers of the railway go through Taihang Grand Canyon where the topography is complicated. [Photo: Xinhua]