Building a garden in the ocean
At the end of every Spring Festival holiday, people returning to work often carry goods ranging from festive clothing to hometown delicacies.
However, the frontier guards of the Chinese People’s Armed Police stationed in Sansha — China’s most southerly prefecture-level city — on Yongxing Island in the South China Sea, want nothing more than soil and seeds to transform their coral outcrop.
Fu Chuanbiao, 30, has been serving in the city since 2012. Every time he takes a boat to return from his home in a different part of Hainan province, he hides a bag of soil in a bag of rice to ensure that the ship’s security will not toss it out like garbage.
The soil is for the vegetable garden on Yongxing, the guards’ only source of fresh vegetables apart from supply shipments, which are often disrupted by bad weather.
“It is a luxury to eat fresh vegetables,” Fu said, adding that without the plants, the locals would be prey to constipation and skin rashes, and have low immunity from disease.
“The vegetable garden has been a life saver and everybody loves it because it benefits us all,” he said.
Fu and his comrade Li Zhenbao first began experimenting with a small garden in 2012. Soon, other guards began to help too. Xu Zheng, 30, brought a bag of cucumber seeds, but many were skeptical of success, including his wife Jiang Minghua, who asked: “Is it even possible to grow food on coral, with no soil or fresh water?”
It was possible. The guards used soil from construction sites and their home areas, one bag at a time, to lay the foundations of the garden. They also collected droplets of water from air conditioners and dripped them onto the saplings.
“By 2013, I had two lines of cucumbers,” Xu said. Unfortunately for him, Typhoon Wutip hit the island in late September of the same year, destroying everything.
Li Ming jian, a 34-year-old frontier guard said the garden was just a small casualty. “The whole island’s ecosystem was a shambles. Neither birds nor bugs could pollinate the plants. We couldn’t even find a single coconut in the following two years,” he said.
The catastrophe turned out to be a blessing in disguise — the entire division was determined to support the garden. “Like the wind-resistant tung tree, once frontier guards plant their roots, we are unshakeable,” Li added.
The guards brought soil from their home areas and last year expanded the garden and divided it into 18 sections, growing lettuces, green onions, parsley and other vegetables and herbs. Fresh water is now more readily available because supply ships visit more frequently.
On January 29, the guards harvested their first batch of vegetables for the team’s twice-yearly hot pot party.
“It was like Chinese New Year’s Day all over again, knowing that our homeland’s soil can still nurture us out here in the distant sea. It makes the vegetables even tastier,” said Ma Kunrong, a 28-year-old guard.
During the dinner, Han Chuanguang, 38, picked up a string of parsley by the roots and dipped the leaves into the pot for a few seconds before putting the herb in his bowl.
“No sauce and no overcooking,” he said. “Everybody knows how hard it is to grow these plants, so we respect their freshness.”