This photo provided by interviewee shows volunteers posing for a group photo during a tree planting event in Minqin County, northwest China's Gansu Province, on Feb. 17, 2025.(Xinhua)
By Xinhua writer Tian Ying
LANZHOU, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Sitting in the cargo bed of an electric tricycle traveling on a bumpy road, Zhang Liwen, arms wrapped around her knees, gazed at the receding sun that was about to slide below the desert horizon.
The 18-year-old college freshman had just wrapped up a tough day of planting suosuo trees in the heart of Badain Jaran, China's third largest desert. The golden moment of sunset is featured in her vlog that recaps her five-day suosuo planting trip as a volunteer in Minqin County of northwest China's Gansu Province.
Zhang, who hails from Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, which is also in the northwest of China, was inspired by a farming reality show that targets a young audience. When watching this show she learned about Minqin's decades-long struggle to reclaim desertified land by planting suosuo checkerboards.
Minqin County, located in the city of Wuwei in Gansu, is sandwiched between China's third and fourth largest deserts -- the Badain Jaran and the Tengger. Local people plant suosuo trees, also known as haloxylon ammodendron, a highly drought-resistant plant useful for securing sand dunes and creating shelter belts.
Partly motivated by her wish to complete a meaningful coming-of-age ritual, the Gen-Z girl promptly searched for desert planting volunteer programs on various social media platforms and decided to have a go during her winter break.
Today, more Gen-Z individuals like Zhang are eager to take on challenging and meaningful tasks, such as planting trees in deserts, with this trend presenting new opportunities for public service programs. Tech-savvy GenZers also help draw broader public attention to these undertakings by sharing their personal stories on social media.
"The younger generation is quite different from those that came before them," said Ma Junhe, 44, who started the volunteer program, explaining why an increasing number of GenZers are keen to sign up for their program.
"Today's youth enjoy a significantly better standard of living than we did in the past. This has led them to be more confident in pursuing their aspirations. They seek admiration for their vibrant personalities and have the financial support needed to achieve their goals," Ma added.
Zhang echoed Ma's observation: "Young people today are generally like me. They really enjoy engaging in meaningful public welfare activities. They feel that it allows them to find their own value and contribute to society."
The vlogs shared by Zhang on her Douyin account are lively and engaging. She filmed a group of young volunteers, including herself, wearing stylish sports sunglasses as they planted suosuo seedlings, enjoyed local noodle dishes in the tent where they lived, and danced choreographed jazz in the desert after work.
Despite the freezing nights, sand getting stuck in their hair and on their faces, and the absence of flushing toilets, the days spent at the camp were more than worthwhile, she said.
The spring session of this program takes place from mid-February to May, allowing volunteers to select their length of stay at their discretion. The camp provides free tents for accommodation, free meals, and opportunities to work with local farmers in planting suosuo trees. Last year, more than 6,000 volunteers planted trees at the camp -- the majority of whom were aged between 20 and 35, according to Ma.
This program has a relatively long history. Back in 2007, then 26-year-old Ma Junhe launched Minqin's first environmental conservation volunteer program under the slogan "Save Minqin." He was inspired to take action after reading in a newspaper that his hometown was at risk of being engulfed by sand within 17 years. The program started with just over 60 volunteers.
Ma has since dedicated years to raising desertification awareness, adapting to various media trends -- from bulletin boards and blogging to the likes of microblogging, WeChat and livestreaming.
In recent years, Ma has also opted to be active on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, which are popular among young people, using these platforms to share real-life working scenarios. Videos featuring local women wearing traditional pink headscarves as they plant suosuo seedlings have made stories from this distant place much more accessible and vivid.
Comparing herself with local farmers, city girl Zhang knows her limits all too well. "I thought my job was quite easy, but later I realized that any job becomes very tiring over time. For example, when holding the seedlings with my left arm, I woke up the next day with sore muscles in that arm. Plus, constantly squatting to place the seedlings made our thighs ache significantly."
Postings of the volunteers on social media platforms also helped raise awareness of and corporate sponsorship for the program. Ma has also sought to diversify the camp's income sources by selling desert specialty products and organizing paid study tours for schoolchildren.
The camp is also helping local women, who can find suosuo planting jobs during the off-season in the fields. "A worker in our camp earns roughly 10,000 yuan (about 1,394 U.S. dollars) for two months of work, which provides a valuable supplement to their household income," Ma said.
As of June last year, the area of artificial afforestation in Minqin County had reached over 2.3 million mu (roughly 153,000 hectares), and a shelter belt extending more than 300 kilometers had been established along a 408-kilometer stretch of desertified land, while the forest coverage rate in the county had increased from roughly 12 percent in 2012 to over 18 percent.
Across China, 4.45 million hectares of trees were planted last year, and the country also harnessed 2.45 million hectares of desertified land in 2024.
China attaches great importance to tree planting, as evidenced by the fact that the country dedicates March 12 every year as national tree planting day. ■
This photo provided by interviewee shows volunteers posing for a group photo during a tree planting event in Minqin County, northwest China's Gansu Province, on Feb. 27, 2025.(Xinhua)
