Hou Gui, a man in his 70s, has planted more than 200,000 trees on 2,400 mu (160 hectares) of sandy land over the past 23 years, transforming harsh sand dunes into a lush forest in Liujia village, Sihecheng township, Zhangwu county, northwest China's Liaoning Province. Liujia village is located on the southern edge of the Horqin sandy land, which is China's largest sand area that is not classified as a desert. Over 20 years ago, this village was plagued by heavy winds and floating sand all year round.
Hou Gui checks the trees in his forest in Liujia village, Sihecheng township, Zhangwu county, northwest China's Liaoning Province. (People's Daily/Liu Hongchao) "Back then, our village was surrounded by sand dunes on three sides. Whatever seeds we planted would either be blown away or buried the next day," Hou recalled.
"We realized that if we couldn't find a solution soon, not only would our farmland be swallowed by the sand, but our village would also be slowly engulfed." In 2001, Hou built a small adobe house in a sheltered spot deep within the sand dunes, and started to plant trees in contracted sandy land in response to a call by the government encouraging people to develop the area. "Apart from being sheltered from the wind, the main advantage of this place is that we could dig a well and have access to water," he said, explaining why he decided to move to such a location so remote that it took over an hour to walk across several sand dunes whenever he needed to bring somet.