In March, Beijing was hit by violent sandstorms for the first time in six years.

Since the 1970s, gigantic areas of the Gobi Desert have been afforested in China in order to protect the country from desertification and the population of the capital from sandstorms that recur every spring.

But the consequences of climate change are also putting the “Great Green Wall” to the test.

This huge green protective wall is officially called the "Three-North Protective Forest Project": it extends from Mongolia through northwest, north and northeast China.

The arduous work on the great, green wall is now mainly taken over by the residents of the regions and its exemplary character for the rest of the country has been praised by the government.

Young volunteers are brought in buses from the cities of northern China to stop desertification.

Over the past 40 years, the project has forested an area the size of a quarter of the land area in China.

In 1949 that was less than 10 percent.

But it is becoming more and more difficult to counteract man-made climate change, storms and drought.