Tree growers win battle against desertification

In 1855, the Yellow River, China's second-longest waterway, changed its course after spilling over its banks.

The major diversion of water resources from the waterway - known affectionately as Mother River - left the formerly fertile land barren, with intensifying desertification encroaching on farmland and threatening to swallow up a major grain-growing plain near the old river channel in Shangqiu, Henan province.

Minquan Forest Farm was established in Shangqiu in 1950 to combat the creeping sand dunes, and over the past 68 years, locals have added 4,600 hectares of "green barriers" to help reverse desertification.