Zhao was then transferred to another forestry bureau and continued to be a lumberman. He reminded himself to be kind to the trees and tried to cut fewer.

Since then, he has decided to alleviate his guilt by secretly planting trees on the mountain, and one early morning in April of 1986, Zhao quietly went to the mountain before dawn.

For four years, very few people knew Zhao had been planting trees on the mountain.

Zhao retired in 1989, and afterward he concentrated more on planting trees. In early April of 1990, Zhao found out that there was more than 133,333 square meters of wasteland on the mountain.

"Peasants would grow crops if we didn't do anything to that place." Zhao told forestry bureau leaders.

Zhao rests in the forest, having lunch. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Leaders then gave him 46,000 saplings and sent the trees to the wasted hillside. However, Zhao had to finish planting before peasants would start to grow crops, which meant he had to plant 1,000 saplings every day in the coming one and a half months.

He made up his mind to do this to save the mountain. Zhao would carry a bottle of warm water and some steamed bread and enter the mountains at 4 am, would plant trees all day, and go back home when it was dark in the evening.

Zhao remembered that one day it rained heavily, which upset him when thought of the time urgency of planting trees. He rushed into rain and kept planting for a whole day in the rain.

The 46,000 saplings were finally planted before spring arrived, and after Zhao planted the last one, he lay on the ground, watched the blue sky, and lamented "I'll keep caring about the trees and keep them alive."

Zhao examines trees he just planted. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]