A cross-border promise of tree-planting between Chinese desert-control heroine Yin Yuzhen and an American donor has been fulfilled since more than two decades ago, helping turning vast stretches of a desert in north China into green land.
A video featured Yin, a national model worker rooted in the Maowusu, the fourth‑largest sandy area in China, went viral on social media lately. In the clip, 60-year-old Yin gestured toward the dense woods behind her and talked to the camera, hoping to find a U.S. benefactor named Ronald Sakolsky from more than 20 years ago, who had raised 5,000 U.S. dollars to help her and her husband plant trees and fight desertification.
In an interview with China Media Group (CMG), Sakolsky said he arrived in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, as an exchange program teacher in 1999, and caught sight of Yin in a televised news segment.
At that time, Yin and her husband had planted about 2,000 hectares of trees on the edge of the desert. Sakolsky was deeply touched by Yin's deed, and decided to help her.
Beginning in October 1999, Sakolsky sent emails to multiple institutions across the U.S. in the hope of soliciting donations, before he eventually raised 5,000 U.S. dollars.
That year, the annual per capita disposable income of urban residents in China stood at 5,854 yuan (about 860 U.S. dollars). For Yin, the 5,000 U.S. dollars was a staggering amount.
"(When I was exchanging the money at the bank,) they counted out more than 30,000 yuan in cash right in front of me. I got scared as I had never seen that much money in my life. So I immediately bought 50,000 seedlings, rushed back, quickly gathered some people, and we started planting straight away," Yin said.
In the spring of 2000, Sakolsky visited Yin in Salawusu Village, Uxin Banner of Ordos in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He was stunned by the harsh environment and her determination.
"We then stopped in the middle of the desert. I mean it was all sand. There were no roads. There was nothing. Then we went to her house, and her and I planted these saplings in the ground," said Sakolsky.
"He kept saying, 'Incredible! This can't be possible. How can such tiny saplings survive and grow? Won't the vast desert just kill them?' I told him, 'Don't worry. If you come back in a few years, I'll show you a forest I will have grown," Yin said.
Over the years, with strong government support and the efforts of local desert-control pioneers, the swathe of green has expanded to cover more than 4,600 hectares of once-barren land near Yin's home, with over 8 million trees planted.
The desertification control rate of the Maowusu Desert in Uxin Banner where Yin lives has reached 85 percent.
"Look at China now. Look at the Maowusu Desert in Inner Mongolia. The forest started with one person who had a dream. Yin Yuzhen had a dream. Her husband joined the dream. I joined the dream. The government of China joined the dream. The dream became a reality," said Sakolsky.
Cross-border promise helps turn desert in north China into green land
