US educator celebrates friendship with former students in China

Retired United States educator Ronald Sakolsky returned Saturday to the former Henan province classroom in Luoyang where he taught English back in 1999, as part of a high profile China trip rooted in his decades-long friendship with celebrated desert restoration pioneer Yin Yuzhen.

During his visit to Luoyang Foreign Language School, Sakolsky was welcomed by a blackboard bearing the words "Welcome home". Many of his former students recognized him instantly — one had traveled all the way from New Zealand especially to meet him.

Overcome with emotion, Sakolsky apologized for his tears even as his former students urged him not to hold them back. He told the class he had never forgotten his years teaching there.

"Once you are my students, you're my children forever," he said.

After a lighthearted question from a former pupil about whether he still played basketball, Sakolsky explained that an arm injury had limited his ability to play as he once did. He recalled climbing a ladder alone to replace worn-out basketball hoop nets during his time at the school, while his students steadied the ladder beneath him.

Sakolsky told attendees that seeing his former students thrive had affirmed his life's work as an educator. He described teaching as a way of life rather than merely a job, comparing his former students to strong, mature trees grown from seeds he planted decades ago. The emotional reunion wrapped up with group photographs alongside alumni and school staff.

Later that afternoon, at a media briefing following the school visit, Sakolsky talked about his decades-long connection with China, stressing the irreplaceable value of face-to-face human interaction. He credited China with shaping his personal growth, adding that letters from his former students had moved him deeply.

"In today's modern world, students and young people spend so much time on computers and mobile phones, sending text messages. Only through face-to-face communication can you truly witness love and understanding," he said.

Fu Bo, Standing Council Member of the China Education Association for International Exchange and former Chinese director of the US China Teacher Exchange Program that Mr Sakolsky joined, said that this genuine cross-border friendship embodies the true spirit of people-to-people exchanges.

She expressed her hope that more such moving ordinary people's stories will be discovered and brought to public attention.

"Educational exchanges ultimately centre on people to people's connection, and sincere one-on-one dialogue will continuously deepen mutual understanding and friendship between peoples," she said.

Sakolsky rose to nationwide fame in China earlier this year after Yin launched a public search for her long lost US friend.

The pair's friendship began in 1999, when Sakolsky traveled to Henan to teach under a US-China teacher exchange initiative. After watching a television documentary covering Yin's tireless efforts to restore the barren Maowusu Desert in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, he secured $5,000 in funding from an US charity to support her afforestation work. That donation helped turn severely degraded land into a flourishing woodland home to more than 50,000 trees.

Their story remained largely untold for decades, until Yin's widely publicized appeal earlier this year successfully located Sakolsky — turning the retired educator into a household name across China.

Sakolsky reunited with Yin in person for the first time in 26 years Aug 23 in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

Sakolsky arrived in Luoyang on Thursday alongside Yin. He began his local engagements Friday with visits to the UNESCO-listed Longmen Grottoes and a local middle school, where he encouraged young people to take action for environmental protection. He also pledged to launch tree planting projects in the US to share China's ecological conservation ethos overseas.