Residents, government partner to turn Shihezi into a green city

After decades of hard work, the efforts of local residents and the municipal government to turn Shihezi in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region into a garden city are paying off.

Song Junhui, the director of Urban Greening Management Office in Shihezi City, Xinjiang on April 21, 2019. [Photo: China Plus]

The municipal government has made reforestation and the improvement of the health of the city's ecology a major goal of the city's urban infrastructure construction. "Each year, the local government mobilizes a large number of local people to plant trees and fight desertification," said Song Junhui, the director of the city's Urban Greening Management Office. Since 2015, more than 170,000 people have taken part in reforestation projects across the city that had received more than 70 million yuan of municipal funds.

The result of these efforts is that 1.3 million new trees and more than 4 million shrubs have been planted, increasing the total amount of green space by 1,060 hectares and giving 41 percent of the city green coverage.

Volunteers plant trees in Shihezi City, Xinjiang on April 21, 2019. [Photo: China Plus]

According to Song, the newly-planted trees not only prevent desertification, but also provide more oxygen to the residents in the city. "We are planting trees ahead of building road," said Song. "In the past three years, we have made huge achievements; for instance, the area near Shihezi Garden Airport was a desert but now it has been covered with trees." Song says the government plans to build five green belts around the city, each 300 to 500 meters wide, as part on the ongoing plan to turn Shihezi into a garden city.

Zhang Duo is one of the thousands of residents of Shihezi who have volunteered to plant trees in the city. "Our city is on the edge of the Gurbantunggut Desert. We attach great importance to the construction of green zones. We have been planting trees since the time of our fathers and grandfathers," he said as he planted a new seedling into the ground.

Ma Xiaohua, a ranger in a rural area of Shihezi City, Xinjiang on April 20, 2019. [Photo: China Plus]

Outside of the city's urban areas, work is continuing on planting forests in the battle against desertification. Ma Xiaohua, a 47-year-old ranger from the city's rural area, has spent more than two decades engaged in this fight. "My goal is to see steady growth in the forest areas I care for. It takes generations to change the environment. Our efforts alone are not enough," said Ma. "If trees are planted all over the country, then our environment will become better."