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The million-dollar sandman
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The boy who was tossed in the air by a desert sandstorm grew up to build a successful company that plants trees to fight encroaching sands.
Shi Guangyin has faced the full force of China’s monster deserts. When he was just eight years old, Shi and his childhood friend were swept up by a tornado and blown kilometers away from their homes.
Miraculously Shi survived and found by his father the next day, partially buried in sand and 15km from where the tornado threw him into the air.
Shi’s pal was never seen again.
Since then Shi, now 68 years old, has vowed to battle the brutal weather and ferocious sandstorms that plague his homeland. And he has become a millionaire in the process.
“I decided that I would fight the desert when I grew up,” says Shi.
Shi was born and raised in Yulin on the edges of the Maowusu Desert in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. His family had to move nine times because of storms and overwhelming sand.
The Maowusu’s winds can reach speeds of up to 20 meters per second, creating a blanket of sand that swallows everything in its path.
“Every three to four years, our house would be buried in sand, and we had to move,” he says.
Since 1978, Chinese authorities have promoted afforestation projects in north China in a bid to stem desert encroachment and soil erosion. These range from government projects to individual tree-planting programs.
Shi became the first contractor to plant trees in the desert to curb the devastating erosion and stamp out sandstorms. He created an oasis Shilisha, which means a sand belt more than 5 kilometers long.
Shi is now head of a million-dollar company, which includes his sand-control arm, and turns out around US$1.63 million a year. He has also boosted his community’s income.
For Shi, his millions have been hard earned. At first, family and friends opposed his bold project to tame the desert by planting trees.
Recalling his pleas at the time to his community, he says, “I told them I have to do it ... because if I don’t, people will no longer be able to live here in the near future.”
Eventually Shi persuaded seven households to join his venture. Despite raising 750 yuan (US$122) among them, they fell well short of the US$16,300 needed to purchase saplings.
Determined, Shi sold all of his sheep and pigs and obtained two loans from local banks.
One year later, 87 percent of the trees they planted remained standing. Shi has since set up his own sand-control business, supported by 100 households.
In the past 30 years, he has planted trees across 16,700 hectares of desert. Along the way he has faced challenges.
After spending the spring of 1986 planting saplings in the 400-hectare area known as Langwosha, 11 successive storms buffeted the region, killing 90 percent of the trees,
It happened again the following year.
“Some people felt frustrated and wanted to quit, because they thought it was a total waste of money,” Shi says. “I told them I must make it work.”
In 1988, after their third attempt using sand-proof barriers and planting shrubs alongside to protect the saplings, 80 percent of the trees survived.
Just two years later, sandstorms became a rarity in the region.
Efforts to improve the environment have also benefited residents whose income has been rising since the project began. Shi has also started other businesses, including a pasture, farming operations, and a vineyard.
“We hope that the vineyard can cover 330 hectares in the next five years,” he says. “We also want to introduce vines from desert regions and make wine in the future.”
Despite 30 years since planting his first sapling, Shi is not ready to rest on his laurels.
“I spent most of my life fight against sandstorms, he says. “I will never stop for as long as I live.”
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