Taiyuan: Although it’s autumn, the trees in the Yuquan Mountain Forest Park in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province in north China, are still green and the park is full of people taking a walk in the woods. The park is a green miracle created on a deserted mountain scarred by abandoned mines.
Shanxi is China’s second largest coal producer after Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and its capital Taiyuan is at the heart of the coal-producing area. Ten years ago, the Yuquan Mountain, rich in coal, was covered by open coal pits and the area was choked by coal dust. When it rained, black water ran down the mountain, polluting the fields. The Yuquan had become a major source of pollution for the city.
In 2009, the local government decided to improve the area to make it suitable for living and drafted a plan to create 26 forest parks. Obsolete coal mines have been converted into parks under the ecological restoration drive.
In recent years, more coal mines have been shut down, which reflects China’s effort to become carbon neutral before 2060, as pledged by President Xi Jinping at the UN.
Green peaks: Private investors are encouraged to participate in ecological restoration. Zhang Junping, a retired soldier, decided to bid for greening the Yuquan Mountain. It was a surprise decision for him, who, having worked as a kettle man in the coal industry since he left the army, had no prior experience in afforestation.
While Zhang was attracted by the new business opportunity, the people he hired quickly left after they saw the area he was trying to reclaim.
It was a dismal place with over 100 disused quarries and nearly another 100 deserted coal and gypsum mines. Undeterred, Zhang continued to plant trees, hiring villagers to bring soil in buckets. Despite the efforts, after two years, the investment went down the drain as all the 120,000 trees he had planted died from drought.
Still undeterred, Zhang soldiered on. This time he built reservoirs on the mountain, a network of pipelines for irrigation and even a road to reach the slopes easily. He became known as the man who planted trees on the cliff.
After nearly nine years of toil and an investment of over 1 billion yuan ($149 million), the mountain today is covered with over 5 million trees in more than 100 varieties, becoming a verdant backyard of the city.
Chang Chunsheng, a local resident, told Xinhua News Agency that with the environment and transport improved, there are more opportunities for a better life. Many villagers have opened hostels and some have fruit orchards, creating a livelihood alternative to mining.
The transformations that have taken place in the Yuquan Mountain are seen in many other places across the country thanks to the measures implemented during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).
In Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, the Helan Mountains, another coal-rich region, have seen all coal mines shut down, and the ecology restored through afforestation. On another range, the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province in northwest China, the houses built illegally on the slopes have been demolished.
At a press conference in October, Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment, said remarkable progress has been made in environmental protection in the past five years, with the major targets and tasks set in the 13th Five-Year Plan mostly completed.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
