On the morning of April 6, 2007, with balmy breeze and warm sun, Beijing enjoys a bluer sky than ever before. After several days of heavy wind and floating dust, people have the genuine feeling that the lovely spring is coming. At 8:00 a.m., organized by the Information Department of the Foreign Ministry, 32 journalists of 22 media from 11 countries and regions, including the Bloomberg, Reuters, Kyodo News Agency, NHK, Russian Information Agency, InterFax, Sveriges Television and Singapore Straits Times, with great interest in the efforts of the Chinese government of sand control, get on a bus to Zhangjiakou city, Hebei province for interviews on the sandstorm source control project of Beijing and Tianjin.

Green Olympics Will Not be Influenced by Wind and Sand Storm

Once getting on the bus, the journalists showed great interest in Cao Qingyao, spokesperson of the State Forestry Administration and the small bus became a special press center. Cao first of all made a brief introduction of the wind and sand storm source control project of Beijing and Tianjin, saying that land desertification is one of the most serious ecological problems of China and the Chinese government pays great attention to sand control. From March 26 to 27, 2007, the State Council held the national sand control conference. Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Hui Liangyu especially attended the conference and made comprehensive deployment of sand control in the near future.

According to Cao, the Beijing and Tianjin wind and sand storm source control pilot project started in June 2000 with the purpose of improving the ecological environment around Beijing. Lasting from 2001 to 2010, the project covers 75 counties (qi, city and district) of 5 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) including Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. By the end of 2006, the project area has extended to 115.2355 million mus, sand transporting wind in the project area has been effectively controlled and the ecological environment around Beijing has been initially improved. The Beijing Olympics will be held in less than 500 days. Holding a green Olympics is the solemn commitment of the Chinese government. We will continue to intensify the wind and sand storm control project and accelerate forestation in the project area. At the time of holding the Beijing Olympics luxuriant trees and grass will cover the land and thus the event will not be influenced by sandstorm.

The seat beside Cao has been occupied throughout the trip. Whenever having questions the journalists will come and sit beside him. Answering questions about the influence of sand and dust weather in China upon its neighboring countries, Cao said that there are sand sources within China but most of the sand and dust influencing China's neighboring countries come from the Central Asia gobi. As a global problem, sand and dust are influenced by climate and will occur once conditions are ripe. With strong air current, the sand and dust floating in the upper air even travel far away across the sea. What mankind can do now is to reduce the frequency and damage of sand and dust weather. This year China has suffered 8 sand and dust weathers including 3 sandstorms. The monitoring results show that all the 3 sandstorms came from abroad, so China is actually a victim of sand and dust weather. The Chinese government will actively carry out international cooperation with related countries and organizations in combating sand and dust, strengthen monitoring and early warning and alleviate the damage caused by sandstorms.

Spring Breeze and Rain Moisten Waste Mountains

After nearly 5 hours of ride, the journalists finally arrived at the first project area – the Batou Hilly Area Shelter Forest Project in Wanquan county, Zhangjiakou city. With a unique location in the transition zone between the Bashang plain and Baxia region and special climate factors, the land in this project area has big rise and fall, interwoven ravines and poor soil.

Led by Kang Chengfu, deputy director of Zhangjiakou Forestry Bureau, the journalists stopped at a hilltop where about 60 workers were planting trees. Some were digging holes, some were growing trees, some were earthing up and others were irrigating. The journalists were busy with taking photos of those industrious workers. The weather of Beijing boasts gentle breeze and warm sun, but here heavy wind blew recklessly. Looking at the workers whose faces were blown red, a Japanese journalist said, "They are really toilsome." However, it is their hard work that curbs the land desertification and covers the waste mountains with exuberant trees. Guiding the journalists to the other side of the slope, Kang said that the entire area was basically covered by grass last year. With harsh climate and an annual precipitation of only 400 millimeters, it is fairly difficult to plant trees and grass here. But in recent years thanks to the integration of engineering and biological measures and applying new technologies the survival rate of forests has been raised considerably. In the past this area frequently suffered from heavy wind and sandstorm in spring and women had to wear scarf when going out. But now things have improved and women rarely wear scarf outside home. Pointing to a large hole where a pine grows, he noted that such a big hole could effectively collect rain water and thus increase the survival rate of trees. Over the past 2 years 11,000 mu of waste hills have turned green and 1.1 million trees been planted under the project. The former waste hills have become an important ecological defense line for Beijing against wind and sand.

Maybe God also wants to welcome those friends coming afar from Beijing. The sunny sky suddenly turned rainy. The journalists seemed to have greater interest in taking photos amid the small rain and the Japanese and Swedish journalists took this opportunity to interview Cao Qingyao, Kang Chengfu and some farmers planting trees.

Sending Breeze to Beijing

After 1 hour of ride along the Zhangbei road, the journalists arrived at the second project area – the project of returning 10,000 mu of land for farming to forest in Gonghui township, Zhangbei county, Zhangjiakou city. The project covers a total area of 16,000 mus along the two sides of Zhangbei road. On the way to the project area the journalists saw lines of trees and grasses stretching far at the two sides of the road.

Kang Chengfu led the journalists to an area of grassland which had been farmland. Amid the luxuriant grass grow the draught-tolerant seabuckthorn. He said that the land has an altitude of 1,400 meters and originally oat grew here. Droughty weather had led to the serious problem of land desertification. Each spring the strong air current from northwest blew sand and dust to Beijing. Since 2003 on a voluntary basis by farmers the policy of returning land for farming to forest has been implemented. Forest and grass intercropping helps lock the dancing sand and dust and send clean wind to Beijing. Concerning the compensation to farmers for defarming and reforestation, Kang said that the Chinese government offers RMB140 per mu plus RMB20 of subsidy for living to each rural household annually. In addition, the seabuckthorn has fairly high economic value. More than 200 seabuckthorns can be planted in one mu and farmers can get greater benefit than working in cities, which greatly stimulates the local households to return the farmland to forest and control sand. A Malaysian journalist said he felt stronger wind here but little sand. So it is fairly effective to control sand by returning the area for farmland to forest and grassland.

The average temperature of Zhangbei is several Celsius degrees lower than that of Beijing. In April flowers are blossoming in Beijing while grasses are only in bud here. Although it still has a long way to go to control the sand source of Beijing and Tianjin, with years of hard work a fairly large green shield of forests has been erected at the north gate of Beijing. Faced with the endless grassland, many journalists said they really want to come back in summer this year when the grass will get green and well experience the blue sky and endless grass. They believe that the sky over Beijing will become bluer.