Yang Weiguo and Gao Qingshan, both serving as volunteer mountain police officers, are members of the Atayal tribe from Fuxing Township and are very familiar with the local mountain terrain. Whenever they have free time, they participate in mountain rescue missions. Over the past decade, they have each rescued more than ten people and are hailed as the “left and right guardians” of the South and North Chātiān Mountains.

On the 12th, the Daxi Police Precinct held an awards ceremony at the Sanmin Village Activity Center in Fuxing Township to honor outstanding volunteer police officers. The event was presided over by Precinct Chief Wu Kunxu, with Yang Weiguo and Gao Qingshan receiving the most attention.

Yang Weiguo, a postal worker, and Gao Qingshan, an electrician and plumber, joined the volunteer mountain police force when they were young. Over the past decade, they have participated in almost every mission. They once traveled south to assist in search and rescue efforts during Typhoon Morakot (also known as the 88 Floods), and together they have taken part in 11 mountain rescue operations, saving 17 lost hikers with a high success rate—earning them the title of “Left and Right Guardians of the South and North Chātiān Mountains.”

Thanks to their near-encyclopedic knowledge of the mountain terrain and years of experience, whenever hikers report being lost and can provide a sufficiently clear description of their location, Yang and Gao are usually able to complete rescue missions successfully.

Even though they are familiar with the mountains, both men maintain a deep sense of awe and respect for the highlands, having encountered many incidents that defy explanation. Yang Weiguo recalled one rescue mission where they found a backpack on a mountain ridge containing quite a bit of food. The team assumed the missing hiker must be nearby, but despite extensive searching, they found no trace. Eventually, all they found was a body kneeling by a stream in the valley. “We couldn’t understand how the hiker could have ended up so far away from the backpack,” he said.