Today is the August 1st Army Day, and we came here to visit the famous poplar outpost, which can be regarded as a bit of a taste. We take G219 and turn left along the road to the entrance of the Little Poplar Outpost
Afterwards, climb the watchtower along the road and take a photo with the little poplars
Source: The Xiaobaiyang outpost is the Tasti outpost in Yumin County, Tacheng Prefecture, Xinjiang, on the border between China and Kazakhstan
A military song "Little Poplar" is very well-known and sung, but not many people know the location of the Little Poplar outpost, and few people have come; Located in the borderland, the G219 national highway passes under the outpost, before the development of tourism in the 80s, this is a desolate and lonely place for many years, and the border guards are silently swaying their youth here.
The Little Poplar post is a border post between China and Kazakhstan. In the early 80s, Cheng Fusheng, a Xibe soldier from Yili at the outpost, went home to visit his relatives and told his mother the story of the border post, who encouraged him to work hard in the army and not miss home, and asked him to bring 10 poplar saplings back to the outpost to plant, telling him to take root in the frontier like poplar trees and defend the country for the motherland.
After Cheng Fusheng returned to the company, his comrades-in-arms were very moved when they learned about this incident, so they planted saplings by the barracks with him. Due to the drought and lack of water at the outpost, the soldiers had to pick up water from the Bulgan River, a kilometer away, and although the soldiers carefully watered it every day with the water saved by washing their faces and brushing their teeth, the little aspen could not endure the ravages of drought, sand, and severe cold, and died one after another, and only one of the ten small aspen trees survived tenaciously. This little aspen thrives under the careful care of the warriors, accompanying the warriors who guard the frontier day and night.
In the summer of 1983, the famous poet and lyricist Liang Shangquan came to the Xinjiang border troops to collect style, moved by the deeds of the little poplar, and composed the song "Little Poplar", on the day of the "August 1st" Army Day in 1984, Yan Weiwen sang "Little Poplar" for the first time at the "August 1st" literary evening held by CCTV, singing the great rivers of the motherland and inspiring the border soldiers. The Tasti outpost, henceforth known as the Little Poplar Outpost. Since then, the little poplar has become a symbol of the border soldiers, and the little poplar post has become the spiritual home of the border soldiers.
The outpost built an exhibition room, but unfortunately it was not open, because there was no water (or lack of water), and the toilets were not open, so that visitors were fighting in the back of the exhibition room.
There is an introduction to the battle of Tasti in the exhibition room, but we didn't go in and had to borrow the network map, due to the time relationship - Sun Longzhen Martyrs Monument also borrowed the network map
Source: The Tasti Incident, also known as the Sun Longzhen Incident, was one of the Sino-Soviet border conflicts during the Cold War, which occurred on June 10, 1969. The Soviets invaded the western area of the Baluk Mountains in Tacheng, China, and kidnapped Zhang Chengshan, an employee of the 161st Regiment who was grazing his cattle. Sun Longzhen, who was 6 months pregnant, and her comrades-in-arms were killed by Soviet bullets when they rushed to the rescue. Platoon commander Li Yongqiang (who had this merit and later served as the commander of the Ali Army Division) led the soldiers of the Tasti border outpost to fight back, and 6 Soviet soldiers were killed on the spot.
To the west of the watchtower is a map of the battle of Tasti, which we compare with the field
After 1997, during the Sino-Kazakh border negotiations, the land in front of the original disputed outpost was recovered by China, and the outpost was moved forward by about 10 kilometers (see the schematic diagram of the battle in Tasti), and the current G219 national highway passed through the original battlefield accordingly;
The guard tower in the distance behind where we stand is now the outpost, which is the land to recover the little poplar outpost to move forward, and now everyone has the honor to visit the original outpost.