More than 50,000 trees grow from cross-border effort in Inner Mongolia

More than 50,000 trees now form a mature forest in Inner Mongolia’s Maowusu Sandy Land, growing from saplings purchased through an international act of support more than two decades ago.

In 1999, US teacher Ronald Sakolsky learned about Yin Yuzhen’s efforts to combat desertification and raised $5,000 for her work. Yin, who began planting trees in the region in the 1980s, used the money for saplings and equipment. She said the funding enabled her to replace small saplings, which had a survival rate below 10 percent, with taller, stronger plants that were less vulnerable to sandstorms.

On August 23, the two met again at an airport in Ordos after years without seeing each other. Their reunion followed an online search Yin began in May, when she posted a video seeking the teacher who had helped her. The effort quickly reconnected them, first by video call and then in person.

Sakolsky described Yin as the true hero of the story and said she had kept the promise she made decades earlier. The flourishing trees provide tangible evidence of what followed his donation: sustained local work that helped restore vegetation on sandy land and created a lasting connection between people from two countries.