(New Year’s walk to the grassroots) Inner Mongolia’s 80-year-old modern version of "Foolish Old Man": 39 years, pioneering mountains and building forests

　　Chinanews.com, Hulunbuir, February 1st, title: The modern version of "Foolish Old Man" in the 80s in Inner Mongolia: 39 years, pioneering mountains and building forests

　　Author Zhang Wei Jiang Xiwu

　　This is Li Zhenhai's 39th Spring Festival in the deep mountains and old forests. Pasting Spring Festival couplets and hanging lanterns... A year ago he spent half a day going down the mountain to purchase new year's goods and decorate a "mountain residence".

　　In addition to his eighty-year-old wife, Li Zhenhai's "family carnival" is more than 1 million sylvestris pine, larch, poplar, spruce, hazelnut, and various fruit trees that he planted with his own hands.

　　"My Spring Festival was really lively!" After a two-hour drive, and 10 kilometers north along a winding mountain road, when the reporter found Li Zhenhai, he was waving a saw and sweating profusely. Forest.

　　80-year-old Li Zhenhai is a farmer in Tawen Aobao Village, Tawen Aobao Town, Moli Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner, Hulunbeier City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. 39 years ago, he put down his hoe and walked into the deep mountains to plant trees and plant green forests.

The picture shows Li Zhenhai doing forest clearing work.

Photo by Jiang Xiwu

　　During the Spring Festival, apart from eating dumplings at home on New Year's Eve, Li Zhenhai spent the rest of his time traveling through more than 2,000 acres of forest clearing forests.

　　"At present, I have cleared more than 100 acres of forest land and pruned more than 10,000 trees." The octogenarian Li Zhenhai seems to have endless energy as long as he is with Linzi.

"I have to hurry up to clear the forest so as not to delay the afforestation in spring."

　　Li Zhenhai, who came from Shandong, was a famous farmer when he was young.

"In the years of farming, the cultivated land was often washed away after heavy rains, and soil erosion and desertification became more and more serious."

　　In 1984, Li Zhenhai decided to invest all his savings in the construction of the Three North Shelterbelt.

Since then, "Life is endless, tree planting" has become his dream.

　　"It took three days to carry and pull the first batch of saplings up the mountain. Digging and digging, my hands were swollen like buns." Li Zhenhai smiled as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

　　From ignorance of technology, lack of experience, and less than 20% tree survival rate, to becoming an expert in afforestation.

Today, the forest sea created by Li Zhenhai himself is boundless and competing for emerald green.

　　According to the estimation of the local forestry department, at present, the economic benefits created by Li Zhenhai's afforestation exceeds 100 million yuan (RMB, the same below), and the ecological benefits exceed 300 million yuan.

　　In recent years, Li Zhenhai has spent more than 2 million yuan on afforestation; he has provided nearly 10,000 saplings worth more than 4 million yuan to all walks of life and farmers and herdsmen who are engaged in afforestation free of charge.

　　Afforestation in spring and autumn, clearing forests in winter and summer.

For nearly 40 years, Li Zhenhai has cared for his tree like a child.

　　Regarding the New Year's plan, Li Zhenhai told the reporter without hesitation that he still kept planting trees.

"In spring and autumn this year, I want to plant another 2,000 trees." (End)