Woodland now covers 54 percent of Youyu county, which used to be mainly desert

As needlelike larch leaves fall like golden snowflakes in the mountains of Youyu county, it is hard to imagine the forests are the result of generations of human effort rather than a gift of nature.

Sitting on the edge of the Ordos Desert, in Shanxi province, Youyu was for centuries a barren land suffering from sandstorms and soil erosion, dating back to devastating conflict between government forces and northern nomads during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

According to Wang Degong, former chairman of the Youyu committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the county's green coverage rate was less than 0.3 percent, with just 5 square kilometers of greenery in an area of 1,969 sq km. Over 70 percent of Youyu's land was desert.

Youyu's first Party secretary, Zhang Ronghuai, spent four months that year visiting the county's 300 or so villages, concluding that: "If Youyu wants to prosper, the wind-borne sand must be controlled. And the only way to accomplish that is by planting trees."

Residents then began their battle against the adverse natural conditions, under the leadership of Zhang and his successors.

Youyu's government officials still take part in tree-planting activities and donate a small portion of their salary - from 300 to 800 yuan ($45 to $115) - each year to afforestation.

The first years were particularly difficult. Though thousands of people helped with the planting each year, most of the trees were quickly destroyed by sandstorms.

After years of trial and error, the people of the county chose plants with a high degree of drought tolerance, such as Korshinsk peashrub, which could help fix the soil and keep the trees alive.

After China's reform and opening-up began in 1978, the Three-North Shelter Forest Program was launched, with the aim of improving environmental conditions by creating shelter forests in northern, northwestern and northeastern China.