How do octogenarians in Xinjiang persist in turning Gobi Desert into an oasis for more than 30 years?

Wang Yanming is a famous name in Karamay, Xinjiang. The Yanming Garden he built is a patriotic education base in Karamay. Every year, many children walk into Yanming Garden, listen to Grandpa Wang's story about planting trees to protect the green, understand the significance of greening, and realize the difficulty of planting trees.

"Yanming Garden" covers an area of 100 mu. There are 50 acres of plum trees, apple trees, elms, poplars and other trees, which are shaded by trees, and are a good place for citizens to take a leisurely walk after dinner.

Once, it was the garbage dump of Karamay No.2 Oil Production Plant, and the Baijiantan area was also a desolate Gobi desert. "At that time, there were no trees and they were bare. People have no awareness of greening and have no conditions to plant trees. " 1985 After retiring, Rebecca made up his mind to stick to planting trees and change this situation, becoming the first person to plant trees in Baijiantan.

At first, there was no water to plant trees. Fortunately, there is a pipeline in the living base of the second oil production plant, which ensures the domestic water for oil workers. Afraid of affecting the water supply during the day, Wang Yanming secretly watered it at night, and the saplings were also left over from planting trees in residential areas.

Later, when I saw a lot of unused water flowing out of the water purification plant, Wang Yanming built a pool, which saved a lot of water. In this way, the trees in the factory grew up. Later, by introducing Baiyang River, more trees were planted.

With the support of the factory, Wang Yanming led four others to start a long road of afforestation. The saplings are planted dead, and they are planted again after death, so they grow differently.

Slowly, the groves in the factory area of No.2 Oil Production Plant grew up, which attracted workers from the drilling site to visit and relax, and asked them to plant trees in their own factory area.

Over the past 33 years, Wang Yanming has led workers to build water parks, Yanming Gardens and windbreaks in No.2 Oil Production Plant, turning a large area of saline-alkali land into a "green besieged city", and the greening rate has risen to 40%.

Once the garbage dump was covered with green clothes, 10,000 poplars and elms formed windbreaks, and more than 3,000 plum trees blossomed and bore fruit. The dusty wasteland has now become a good place for factory residents to spend their holidays. Wang Yanming also won many honors, such as moral model in Karamay, advanced individual in greening in Xinjiang and national greening award.

After 33 years of persistent tree planting in Karamay, Wang Yanming's action infected a large number of Karamay people, and voluntary tree planting has become a conscious action of citizens. Forests such as party member Pioneer Forest, League Youth Forest, Military Forest, Family Precious Forest and People's Shelterbelt have turned the once desolate Gobi Desert into a tree-lined modern city.

Karamay has also won the honorary titles of national advanced greening unit, national environmental protection model city, national garden city, Chinese living environment model award and national civilized city.

According to Wang Yanming, I transferred from my hometown in Chengde, Hebei Province to Dushanzi Drilling Office in Xinjiang in 1955, and went to Karamay to hold an oil conference in 1959, which witnessed the vicissitudes of Karamay in the past 60 years and made my due contribution to the development of oil industry in Xinjiang and even China.

Wang Yanming said that today's Karamay is full of tall buildings and trees, with rivers passing through the city and roads extending in all directions, which is the result of several generations of oil people fighting against the harsh environment. "I have deep and special feelings for Karamay."

Now, the four people who planted trees with Wang Yanming have all retired, and only he still insists. He said: "As long as we can still move, we must continue to work and contribute to the ecological civilization of Karamay and the construction of beautiful homeland."