In the vast territory of the northern part of the motherland, a "green great wall" stretching for thousands of miles is constantly extending and expanding, which is China's "three north" project.

General Secretary Xi Jinping recently inspected Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, presided over a symposium on strengthening comprehensive desertification control and promoting the construction of key ecological projects such as the "Three Norths" and delivered an important speech. He stressed that strengthening the comprehensive prevention and control of desertification and deeply promoting the construction of key ecological projects such as the "Three Norths" are related to China's ecological security, the construction of a strong country, and the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

The project was launched, creating a precedent for large-scale ecological construction in China

"In those years, the wind and sand drove us away, and we moved nine times." This is the childhood memory of Shi Guangyin, a winner of the "July 9st Medal" and a national hero in sand control, when his home was on the southern edge of the Maowusu Desert.

Back then, the wind and sand were full of wind, and the sand entered and retreated, not only in one place and one region. The three northern regions are distributed with eight deserts, four major sandy lands and vast Gobi in China, and by the end of the 20s of the 70th century, a wind and sand line from Heilongjiang in the east to Xinjiang in the west has been formed.

More than 1300 million hectares of farmland in the Sanbei region have been harmed by wind and sand, and grain production is low and unstable; More than 1000 million hectares of grassland have been severely degraded due to desertification and salinization. The Loess Plateau loses more than 1,<> tons of soil per square kilometer per year, which is equivalent to scraping off <> cm thick topsoil soil. Faced with a series of problems, what to do?

In May 1978, relevant experts from the State Forestry Administration submitted to the Party Central Committee "Opinions on Building Thousands of Miles of Shelter Forests to Transform Nature". In November of that year, the State Council approved and forwarded the State Forestry Administration's plan for the construction of large-scale shelter forests in key areas of wind and sand hazards and soil erosion in the three norths, marking the official launch of the construction project of the "three north" shelter forest system, creating a precedent for large-scale ecological construction in China.

Building the "Great Green Wall" in the northern part of the motherland

From Binxian County, Heilongjiang in the east to the Uzbeli Mountain Pass in Xinjiang in the west, it involves 13 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

From 1978 to 2050, 73 years span, 3 phases, 8 phases.

The "Three Norths" project, with its large scale, long time, difficulty and results, has attracted worldwide attention.

In order to turn the wind and sand line into a "green Great Wall", the "Three North" project has made a series of major breakthroughs in sand prevention and control, drought-resistant afforestation, fly-seeding afforestation, and mountain closure (sand) afforestation technology. Builders invented fish scale pits, horizontal steps, reverse slope terraces, etc., to improve water utilization; Use wheat grass to make a lattice in the sand, and use the grass square to fix the sand.

Shi Guangyin, who was once swept away by the wind and sand as a child, with the "barrier sand control method" and the tenacious perseverance of only doing one thing to control sand in his life, advanced into the sand, this time, he advanced, the sand retreated...

From 1978 to 2020, from the first phase to the fifth phase, more than <> years have passed, and the "Three North" project has realized the historic transformation from "sand into people retreating" to "green entering and retreating", realizing the transformation from simple forest construction to landscape forest and lake grass and sand system management, and realizing the transformation from shelter forest system to green ecological barrier.

In the northern part of the motherland, the mountains and rivers have undergone tremendous changes. This dramatic change is not only reflected in the significant increase in forest coverage and planted forest area, but also visible and tangible: the Kubuqi Desert, known as the "sea of death", has become a model for global desertification control; The once heavily desertified Horqin grasslands are heavily dressed in green; Duolun County, Inner Mongolia, which used to be "full of winds and yellow sand", has become a summer resort in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region...

From 2021 to 2030, the "Three North" project will enter the six-phase construction period. The human miracle of "green into sand retreat" continues.

Paint a renewed picture of a beautiful China

"Consolidate and develop the green ecological barrier in the northern part of the motherland, and make new and greater contributions to building a beautiful China." In November 2018, on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the construction of the "Three Norths" project, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave important instructions on the project.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited relevant provinces in the Three North Region many times and made important instructions on strengthening the "Three North" shelter forest and promoting the construction of ecological projects.

The Saihanba Forest Farm in Hebei, which has created the miracle of transforming the wasteland into a forest and sea, is an important area for the construction of the "Three North" project. In August 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping praised the builders of the forest farm for "forging the spirit of Saihanba with mission in mind, hard work and green development". Four years later, when the general secretary visited Saihanba, he stressed that it is necessary to inherit the spirit of Saihanba and deeply understand and implement the concept of ecological civilization.

At the foot of the Qilian Mountains, the story of three generations of the eight-step sand forest farm represented by the "six old men" continuing to control sand is still continuing to this day. In August 2019, at the Babu Sand Forest Farm, General Secretary Xi Jinping said that the new era needs more contemporary fools and role models like the "Six Old Men". It is necessary to carry forward the fighting spirit of the "six old men" who do not bow their heads in the face of difficulties and dare to turn deserts into oases, encourage people to devote themselves to the construction of ecological civilization, continue to exert efforts, make contributions for a long time, and strive to build a beautiful China.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, China has continued to carry out large-scale land greening actions. The national forest coverage rate and forest stock have maintained "double growth" for many consecutive years, and the land area of desertification and desertification has achieved "double reduction" for many consecutive years.

Green is the background color of a beautiful China in General Secretary Xi Jinping's heart.

As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized when participating in the 2023 voluntary tree-planting activity in the capital: "Let us take active action, starting from planting trees, planting green mountains and gold and silver mountains that belong to everyone, and painting a renewed picture of a beautiful China." ”