Planted forests protect the capital
Print Edition
Five former sandstorm-plagued areas around the Chinese capital are now lush forests, according to the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau.
The announcement was made yesterday on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.
The five desertified areas — the towns of Kangzhuang and Nankou as well as rivers of Chaobai, Yongding and Dasha — sprawl 165,000 hectares in Beijing’s northwestern, northeastern and western suburbs.
The metropolis has launched a series of afforestation programs starting in the 1980s.
In 2012, Beijing launched its largest afforestation drive in its plain areas, planting at least 54 million trees on 70,000 hectares.
Another regional afforestation project, launched in 2000 to build a barrier around the capital against the incursion of deserts and sandstorms, has also added 553,300 hectares of forests in Beijing alone.
Thanks to such afforestation efforts, Beijing has seen a steady decline of sand and dust in spring, from 26 days in the 1950s to around six days at the turn of the century to three days after 2010, according to Beijing Meteorological Bureau.
The town of Kangzhuang, in northwestern Yanqing District, is now flush with pine trees and willows, where once it was a barren and pebbly desert.
In the 1990s, locals fought all odds to plant more than 3 million saplings to transform the rocky terrain. Initially, even water and soil had to be transported from miles away, said Wang Huakun, deputy director of the local greening office.
“Machines failed to shovel up the stones so we had to do it all by hand,” she said. “We placed plastic bags in each tree pit to prevent soil and water from leaking through the rocks.”
In Beijing’s northern suburb of Changping District, similar measures turned more than 1,300 hectares of sand and derelict coal pits into forests.
“In the past, there was nothing but rocks and sand here and it was too rough to even ride a bike,” said Zhang Chunyu, a 55-year-old resident in Tulou Village.
“Now the sandstorms that once plagued us are basically gone. Villagers serve as forest guardians, which helps them earn much more than tilling on the barren lands.”
By the end of 2018, Beijing’s forest coverage had reached 43.5 percent.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
