Green projects by college helping to clean up wastelands

Walking through the dense walnut forests in Yuxian, a small county in Shanxi province, it is hard to imagine that the bright green hills used to be barren wasteland left by extensive coal mining.

Thanks to eco-restoration projects initiated by the College of Environment and Resources of Shanxi University, tracts of exhausted land and tainted water left by resource-dependent industries like those in Yuxian have been revitalized and transformed into fertile soil and clean streams.

Li Hua, a professor at the college, said it is time to pay back the province - which fueled the country's economic growth with abundant coal supply at the expense of pollution - with cutting-edge eco-rehabilitation science.