[Rural Revitalization] A 72-year-old man in Qinghai spends half his life "paved" green barren hills
In the early autumn, the reporter met the 72-year-old "green messenger" Ma Jincai in Haidong citizens and Hui and Tu Autonomous County of Qinghai Province, known as the "East Gate of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau".
From the age of 44, he began volunteering to plant trees on the barren hills of Yuwang Gorge in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
In the spring of 1994, Ma Jincai dug a mountain apricot seedling from his yard, picked up a shovel, climbed up the hillside along the familiar path, and planted the seedling halfway up the mountain.
This tree is also the first tree on the slope of Yuwangxia Mountain.
Every morning, when the sky was dark, Ma Jincai set out from home with dry food and buckets.
Carrying a bucket through the piles of rocks, slowly descending the steep hillside, and lifting water to the Yellow River at the foot of the mountain.
A sapling, a bottle of Yellow River water... In 28 years, more than 2,000 trees have been planted on foot to "pave green" the barren hills by the Yellow River.
Previously, the north bank of Yuwang Gorge was all barren slopes, with only clumps of wormwood and scattered shrubs, which hardly covered the bare ground.
Nowadays, a tree has become a scenic spot, and Yuwang Gorge has changed from a barren mountain "big ditch" to the last beautiful gorge where the Yellow River flows through Qinghai Province.
(Li Jun produced Zhou Jing)
Editor in charge: [Liu Pai]