Wu Huichang, a 75-year-old man of Beiguan Village in Wuqiang County, Hebei Province, planted more than 20,000 trees over the past 12 years. As a result, the 2.5 km long, formerly barren Tianping Gully outside his village has become a green Great Wall.

A former carpenter, Wu was one of those who felled trees to get the timbers they needed until one day in the spring of 1989, when he found the Tianping Gully, where he usually got his timbers, had become bare. "What will our descendants do if there are no more trees in the future?" Wu asked himself. He decided to change his role from a tree-feller to a tree-planter. After getting permission from the village head and the relevant forestry department, Wu started his project and planted more than 1,000 poplars and willows in that year.

His children all came to help, but Wu said, "I cannot stay at ease unless I'm assured the trees they planted will survive." When the planting season came, Wu always busied himself in the gully from morning to night, holding a shovel in hands. In order to ensure the survival of saplings, he would remove weeds, cut branches, and bank up the holes for the trees. Under such good care, the saplings grew well and eventually covered the Tianping Gully in green.

"I engrafted these saplings myself," Wu said proudly, pointing at the greenery in the gully. It is understandable that he takes the trees as his babies. Many of the young trees were bought 20 kilometers away and carried back by him on his bike.

For 12 years, Wu has kept planting trees and never cut a single wood. It makes him heart broken to see others destruct the forest. To protect the trees he has planted, he serves as a night guard, after a day's tiring work.

Following Wu's example, many villagers also take an active part in planting and protecting trees. Looking at the luxuriant trees, Wu said with a big smile, "It's great that the trees can help villagers hide from the heat in the summer and block the sandstorms in spring and autumn. However, my Great Wall' hasn't been finished yet. I will plant as many trees as I can till the end of my life."

(china.org.cn by Wu Nanlan, December 13, 2002)