After China's desertification hero Yin Yuzhen and her American friend Ronald Sakolsky reunited by telephone recently, people across the country have eagerly hoped they would meet in person. Now that's coming true.

In a Tuesday interview with China Daily in Beijing, Yin's dark black braid was striking. It hung from neck to waist — even now at age 60 — the same as it did in many of the old pictures captured of her working in the desert.

She revealed that she would meet her old friend and tree-planting benefactor this summer.

Contacted on Tuesday night, Sakolsky confirmed the appointment. He will be coming to China again. "It looks like August," he said. He planned to visit the "forest miracle" he helped create years ago on a stretch of the Maowusu sandy area in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Maowusu is China's fourth-largest sandy area that stretches across several provinces including Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi province and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

On his trip to China, Sakolsky also plans to visit Luoyang, Henan province, where he taught English in 1999 and 2000. During that time, he heard about Yin's efforts — how she worked to plant trees to reclaim land that was being overtaken by desert sand.

He set out to raise money to support the project and produced a $5,000 donation for her to buy saplings. Those trees have now grown and cover the ground in green. It is something Yin said she will never forget.