亚洲精品1234,久久久久亚洲国产,最新久久免费视频,我要看一级黄,久久久性色精品国产免费观看,中文字幕久久一区二区三区,久草中文网

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / Latest

Campaign sows seeds of better future

Tree-planting tradition mirrors nation's solid effort to advance ecological cause

By MO JINGXI | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2026-04-04 07:08
Share
Share - WeChat
President Xi Jinping plants a tree with children during a voluntary planting activity in Changping district of Beijing on Monday. YAN YAN/XINHUA

On a bright spring day last week in Beijing's Shunyi district, Philip Elliot Brooksbank, who was participating in a voluntary tree-planting activity for the first time, was struck by two old sayings — one Chinese, one Western — that share the same belief: those who plant trees are investing in a future they may never personally enjoy.

In collaboration with people of different nationalities and backgrounds, Brooksbank, a 52-year-old from Britain, planted cherry, flowering almond and peach trees, one shovelful of soil at a time.

"By the end of the event, all our faces were flushed, but it was spring sunshine and honest labor. We all felt a sense of accomplishment and shared purpose," he told China Daily.

In China, there is a saying that "one generation plants trees in whose shade another generation rests". In the West, there is a similar adage: "A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit."

For Brooksbank, the significance of tree planting lies in its expansive horizon. Knowing well that these trees will one day offer shade to people he may never meet, he said the spirit behind the act still matters deeply. "When you're digging the earth, planting, positioning the saplings and carefully backfilling, all of these things become a meaningful bridge between the past and the future."

That sense of continuity lies at the heart of China's tree-planting tradition. The activity that Brooksbank joined is part of Beijing's annual voluntary tree-planting campaign, a public endeavor that has continued for more than four decades.

On Dec 13, 1981, the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, adopted a resolution launching the nationwide voluntary tree-planting campaign, making planting of trees an obligation for citizens of appropriate age.

This tradition was once again highlighted on Monday, when President Xi Jinping joined a voluntary tree-planting activity in Baishan township in Beijing's Changping district. In the soft spring breeze, Xi tilled the soil, piled up earth around the saplings and then gently watered them.

Afforestation is an important task in building a beautiful China, Xi said, calling for sustained and solid effort to advance the cause. He urged the whole society to take an active part in the campaign, emphasizing that a sound ecological environment is shared by all and requires the joint effort of all.

The event marked Xi's 14th consecutive participation in Beijing's voluntary tree-planting activity since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress was held in November 2012.

In 2013, when Xi attended the city's voluntary tree-planting activity for the first time after becoming general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, he planted a Chinese white pine tree at Beijing Garden Expo Park in Fengtai district.

Today that tree stands tall and lush, mirroring the park's transformation from once-barren land into a well-known urban leisure destination.

During the event that year, Xi noted that China's afforestation mission remained arduous, as forest resources were still relatively scarce and the ecological system remained fragile. He called for the voluntary tree-planting campaign to be continued in a sustained and in-depth manner.

In Xi's view, afforestation and greening are endeavors that benefit both present and future generations. These are tasks that should be pursued with determined effort, year after year, generation after generation, he once said.

That message has remained consistent.

Speaking at a welcoming dinner of the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing in 2014, Xi told foreign guests: "My hope is that every day we will see a blue sky, green mountains and clear rivers not just in Beijing, but all across China, so that our children will live in an enjoyable environment. This is a very important part of the 'Chinese Dream'."

In 2017, during another tree-planting activity in Beijing, Xi encouraged schoolchildren across the country to foster awareness of environmental protection from an early age and plant trees with their own hands for the motherland and for a beautiful world. "We all enjoy the shade planted by those who came before us, but we should also become the ones who plant trees," he said.

China's greening drive has produced visible results.

According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the country has made solid progress in land greening, with both forest area and forest stock volume expanding for 40 consecutive years. China's forest area has reached 241 million hectares, with the forest coverage rate increasing to 25.09 percent.

Beijing offers a vivid local example of that transformation.

Chang Xiangzhen, an official with the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau, said that in the first three months of this year, more than 100,000 residents took part in voluntary tree-planting activities in various forms.

From 1980, before the launch of the voluntary tree-planting campaign, to the end of 2025, Beijing's forest coverage rate increased from 12.83 percent to 45 percent, while the coverage of parks and green space within a 500-meter service radius reached about 93 percent, Chang said.

The changes are felt not only in terms of official statistics, but also in everyday life.

A Beijing netizen, born after 2000, recalled that although his generation did not experience the time in the 1980s when people brought their own food and climbed hills to plant trees, his childhood memories of planting trees with classmates or adopting saplings in residential compounds remain vivid.

"At the time, it felt like just another spring outing," the netizen wrote. "Only looking back do I realize that every patch of green was watered by the sweat of generations."

At the Central Urban Work Conference last year, Xi also spoke of that transformation, recalling that during the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, one African leader told Xi that he had visited Beijing when he was young and back then there were hardly any trees, and that now the city has changed dramatically for the better.

Brooksbank, from Britain, who has lived in Shunyi district for more than a decade and describes it as his second home, said he and his wife have personally witnessed many of those ecological improvements.

"One of the striking changes for me has been the large-scale repurposing of land — turning it into lush forests, usable woodland, or even restoring it to productive agricultural land," he noted.

Brooksbank said he believes Xi's consistent participation in voluntary tree-planting activities helps make caring for nature feel less like an optional personal preference and more like a shared civic virtue.

Through the efforts of leaders and ordinary citizens, that "beautiful cycle" continues — one that is helping build a greener, more sustainable future not only for China, but for the wider world, he added.

Yang Cheng contributed to this story.

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1994 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US