Youyu county, located in northwestern Shanxi province, is turning into a green oasis after years of efforts combating desertification.

To date, it has nearly 1.7 million mu (113,333 hectares) of plantation forests and about 130 million trees. In the past 70 years, the county's greening rate increased from less than 0.3 percent to 56 percent.

Zhao Shouzhong, who has been working as a forestry technician for 37 years with Youyu Nanshan Forestry Park, said he still feels incredible thinking how much Youyu has changed in the past few decades.

"When we were little, we had to light up the house even though it was daytime, because the county was always clouded with sandstorms," Zhao said.

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