Feature: Only by their graves can Company 13 be known
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There is no Company 13. Company 13 does not exist. Or does it?

Thousands of graves stretch across the Gobi desert, the final resting place of men and women who worked in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a paramilitary organization established to develop and guard the northwest frontier.

The XPCC was founded in 1954, initially comprising 175,500 demobilized soldiers but soon joined by civilian volunteers from all walks of life and all across the country.

Maintaining a military structure with divisions and regiments, the Corps spearheaded the development of the region for decades, giving birth along the way to many stories of hardship and struggle.

Stories of the phantom company date back about sixty years.

Xing Zhengfa worked on the Red Star No. 2 Farm, which had 12 companies in the 1950s. He died and was buried on the Gobi desert beside the farm.

A friend, not knowing of his death, came to visit him and Xing's comrades didn't have the heart to tell him the truth, so they told him that Xing had been transferred to "Company 13."

Xing's friend left. Soon, a letter was delivered to the farm, addressed "Company 13, Red Star No.2 Farm."

The burial ground of those who considered the farm their second home and had the misfortune to pass away there has been known as Company 13 ever since. Although it's never been officially recognized, Company 13 has become the biggest "company" in the division.

A low wall separates the graves from the vast farm. All tombstones face southeast, the direction of the supposed hometowns of those interred there. The inscriptions on the stones suggest the deceased came from every part of the country.

Among the tombs is Chen Xiliang's. He went there in 1949 from south China's Guangdong Province, more than 3,000 kilometers away. He has laid alongside his comrades for more than 20 years. A few steps away from his tomb, is the channel that irrigates the land, Chen's lifelong cause.

To turn the Gobi into farmland, Chen and more than 1,000 others took up their shovels to dig a canal that brings water to the farm.

They dug through the snow, living in tents, huddled by stoves. When the work was done, Chen took a job maintaining the canal and didn't retire until his last breath.

"On his deathbed, he asked us to bury him close to the canal," recalled Chen Xiliang's son, Chen Guangming.

Today, more than 4,000 hectares of fertile farmland have been made out of sand on the farm, thanks to the endeavors of people like Chen. As head of water and electricity department of the farm, to some extent Chen Guangming has inherited his father's career.

"I'm deeply influenced by my father," he said. "Devoted to their cause, my father and his colleagues set a good example for us."

Irrigation on the farm is now a more sophisticated matter. With the help of sensors, the workers know which stretch of land is dry and needs water.

Through six decades, the XPCC has reclaimed 1.3 million hectares of farmland and is now modernizing Xinjiang's agriculture.

The corps has turned the country's driest region into the biggest area using water-saving irrigation technologies, producing a sixth of China's cotton.

Author： 　　　Source：xinhua　　　 Editor：Yang Fan