Planting leads to prosperity for county in Shuozhou, Shanxi province that embroiled in long fight against desertification

With clusters of sea buckthorn fruit still hanging on branches and attracting birds from afar, the banks of the Cangtou River in Youyu county, Shuozhou, Shanxi province, is full of life even in early winter.

The river is the main source of water for an area of wetland that features a mixture of grassland, shrubs and forest. Known as the Cangtou River Ecological Belt, the wetland is like a shard of jasper embedded in the northeast edge of the dry loess plateau in northern China, at the point where it meets the desert of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

It is now a paradise for dozens of species, including roe deer, rabbits, Mongolian gazelles, foxes, badgers and more than 160 species of birds, including francolins and pheasants, among which 30 are considered rare.

Things were completely different in the past. In the late 1940s, the county's overall vegetation coverage rate was less than 0.3 percent, and desertified land accounted for a further 76.4 percent. Today, though, the vegetation coverage rate has risen to 56 percent.

Shuozhou records show that in the past, residents suffered from winds and sandstorms in the dry season and floods and landslides in the rainy season.

After nearly four months of field research, Zhang Ronghuai, Party chief of Youyu in 1949, proposed planting trees as a way to halt desertification.

The first aspen planted near the river ushered in a reforestation campaign that has lasted until today.