The guardians who keep watch over Beijing’s Forbidden City

In an age of facial recognition technology and wall-to-wall surveillance cameras, one of Beijing’s biggest tourist attractions still relies on people to keep it secure.

Li Quanhe is one of a squad of security officers who quite literally make sure the doors of the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, stay open day after day for the millions of tourists who visit it each year.

Li’s day starts at about 7.30am as it has done for the last 38 years, when he and his team push open perhaps the best known gate in China – the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, according to the Legal Evening News.

It’s no easy job, especially when the north wind blows in from Mongolia, and they have to force a huge wedge into place under the doors to make sure they don’t slam back and crush anybody.

“If a door as heavy and as big bounces back, your hands will be crushed,” the report quoted Li as saying.