These poor chaps from the China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) were forced to perform their daily training session despite temperatures hitting -30 degrees celsius in Heihe, Heilongjiang Province, on Tuesday. The air was so bitingly cold that frost covered their eyelashes, hats and shoulders. The soldiers, from of the Frontier Guards company, are part of the world’s largest military force, with the PLA boasting more than 2.2 million personnel – around 0.18% of the country’s population.
In November, China dispatched a unit of the PLA to help Ebola-hit Liberia after responding to UN calls for a greater global effort to fight the virus in West Africa.