Retired US teacher Ronald Sakolsky and Yin Yuzhen visit Luoyang, China's Henan

Yin Yuzhen, Ronald Sakolsky and their mutual friend Bai Fan (L to R) visit the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang City, central China's Henan Province, on Aug. 28, 2026. Retired U.S. teacher Ronald Sakolsky, who once supported China's desertification control efforts, and Yin Yuzhen, a Chinese woman dedicated to combating desertification, paid a visit to Luoyang on Friday.

They visited the city's over 1,500-year-old Longmen Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Luoyang No. 2 Foreign Language School, where they met with teacher and student representatives and planted a "friendship tree" on campus.

Twenty-six years ago, while in China on a teaching exchange program, Sakolsky raised 5,000 U.S. dollars to support Yin's tree-planting efforts in a desert. With the funds, Yin and her family went on to cultivate a forest of more than 50,000 trees.

During his current trip to China, Sakolsky reunited with Yin at her home in Inner Mongolia and marveled at the "miracle" she had created. [Photo/Xinhua]