Lumberjacks in northeast China's Dahinggan Mountains and Xiaohinggan Mountains, the country's largest timber production zone, have been leaving the region in search of a better standard of living since 2000, when strict lumbering quotas were imposed by the central government.
Rich in forest resources, the Dahinggan Mountains, situated in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, and the Xiaohinggan Mountains, located mainly in Heilongjiang Province, are China's major timber producers.
During the past five decades, several hundred forestry centers have been established in these mountainous regions, producing a combined total of over one billion cubic meters of timber, about one-third of the country's total.
Meanwhile, the forestry centers have also created many job opportunities for local people.
In the late 1990s, around three million people were making a living by felling natural forests in those areas, which devastated both China's forest resources and environment.
In 2000, the Chinese government began to restrict lumbering in these areas to protect forests, which has resulted in dramatic reductions in the incomes of lumberjacks, causing many to relocate in search of work.
According to Wei Wenyan, party secretary of the Dahinggan Mountains Forestry Group, the population in the group's forested area has decreased from 550,000 to 490,000.
People moving out from the forestry regions for new life number no less than 150,000.
In several of these towns, rows and rows of vacant houses can be seen, some of which have long been abandoned.
Some residences in remote forest areas have been completely deserted, leaving no one.
Xie Yuanhan, 68, a resident of a town affiliated with the Dalaigou forestry center in the Dahinggan Mountains, said there used to be 3,000 people living in the town, which is now home to 1,000.
"What option do they have other than to leave?" He said. "When we first arrived here 40 years ago, there were thick and tall trees everywhere, but now nearly all of the trees have been felled."
"If they don't move to other places, how can they make a living?"
Yao Guodong, another elderly resident, said his son and daughter-in-law have found jobs in Hebei Province and are making a good living.
More residents will have to leave, as there will be fewer and fewer trees to cut, Yao added.
The phenomenon can be seen throughout the forest towns in the Dahinggan Mountains.
Residents cannot fell one more tree, as it is time for mankind to make room for forests, said Peng Yanwu, a forestry official in Mohe county in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
Over the past two years, about 6,000 people have moved to the county's urban area from the forestry centers up in the mountains.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2003)
