Makit County, located on the southwestern rim of the Taklimakan Desert, has become a shining example of China's success in simultaneously alleviating desertification while improving the standard of living for locals.
The Taklimakan Desert, China's largest desert, is also known as the "Sea of Death" and has remained an inhospitable land for a long time.
Surrounded by deserts, Makit is the only county in the country that is embedded in a desert, with the desert covering 90 percent of the total area of the county. Many ordinary people in the county in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are fighting tenacious and unrelenting battles against desertification.
Yin Honghai, 46, is a member of the anti-desertification team. Working tirelessly under the scorching sun of the desert all year round, his face is tanned and reddened. At times, he even has to live and eat in the desert for consecutive months.
"It's normal that sometimes we might even eat sand along with our food," said Yin Honghai, Party branch secretary of the Sand Control Center of Makit County.
In fact, Yin and his colleagues also encountered various difficulties during the process of afforestation.
"During the planting process, we encountered issues with the survival rate of the seedlings. In a desert with no sign of vegetation anywhere, can trees really thrive in the desert? There were doubts, but we didn't give up. At that time, we wanted to cultivate trees that would be suitable for growth in our desert in our own way," he said.
Yin and his colleagues have continuously explored and practiced, finding ways to improve the survival rate of seedlings.
"This is the populus diversifolia tree that we planted ourselves, and it was also transplanted from our nursery garden. These populus diversifolia trees have grown very well in the past year. The roots can reach more than 50 meters deep, and such vegetation can protect our green homeland," he said.
"Party branch secretary Yin has been leading us to plant trees here for several years. Now that the trees have grown, we can graze sheep, and our living conditions are getting better and better," said a local farmer.
In today's Makit, sandy and dusty weather has decreased from over 150 days in 2010 to fewer than 50 days a year.
Xinjiang's Makit battles desertification by planting populus diversifolia trees
