Chinese 'plant' trees on mobile phones

[Photo: from VCG]

China is marking its 40^th Tree Planting Day, also known as Arbor Day, Monday. 

Renting a bike, taking the bus, or simply walking -- these daily activities can lead to trees being planted in deserts in China, and hundreds of millions of Chinese are doing so.

A nonprofit project by Ant Financial, See Foundation and China Green Foundation since 2016, is rewarding low-carbon acts by Alipay users with "energy" that is used to "water" virtual trees in their mobile phones.

Xu Di, who heads "Ant Forest," a function embedded in the Alipay app, says, "When a virtual tree grows up", they "plant a real tree."

In addition to public transportation, "energy" rewards are given for online purchases of movie and train tickets and online trade in second-hand items.

According to Xu, the campaign has attracted 280 million participants and brought more than 12 million Haloxylon trees in Alxa and Ordos in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Wuwei in Gansu Province. 

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI] 

(News source: Xinhua)