US teacher returns to Maowusu desert 26 years later to plant new tree

When Ronald Sacholski stepped into the Maowusu Desert on Aug. 24, he wasn't just visiting a place he remembered from decades ago. He was coming back to see a woman he calls a "miracle worker" — and to plant a tree he had promised to plant with her, a quarter of a century earlier.

Sacholski, an American who once taught English in central China's Henan Province, was greeted warmly at the home of Yin Yuzhen, a local hero known for transforming vast stretches of barren sand into thriving woodland. Also there to meet him was Bai Fan, an old colleague from his teaching days in Luoyang and now Party branch secretary of the education group at the city's No. 2 Foreign Language School.

Sacholski and Bai Fan embrace on their reunion. [Photo by Wang Jinglong]

Over tea at Yin's home, the old friends talked at ease. "I'm just an ordinary teacher with a good heart. I never did any of this for recognition," Sacholski said. He added that younger generations have no memory of what the desert once looked like — and that it falls to teachers to tell them how dramatically this land has been transformed.

Sacholski visits Yin Yuzhen's home after a 26-year gap. [Photo by Wang Jinglong]

Their story began in 1999, when Sacholski was teaching at the Luoyang school and first learned of Yin's tireless battle against encroaching sands in Maowusu. Moved by her determination, he raised $5,000 to support her work. Over the next 26 years, that seed of support — carefully nurtured by Yin and her husband — grew into a forest of roughly 50,000 trees. For Sacholski, Yin has become nothing short of a hero who turned a wasteland green.

Yin Yuzhen and Sacholski plant a new tree together. [Photo by Wang Jinglong]

At their reunion, Yin and her family presented Sacholski with a flower garland. He put it on, took in the sweeping green landscape that now stretches to the horizon, and reached out to touch an old tree — the very one the two had planted side by side in 1999. Then, with everyone watching, they picked up their shovels again and planted a new sapling, honoring the pledge they had made all those years ago.

The setting of their reunion told its own story. Yin no longer lives in the semi-buried earthen shelter she once called home; today, she and her family reside in a two-story cottage. The yellow dust storms that once plagued this region have given way to leafy groves and blooming gardens. What began as a friendship in the middle of a desert has now found its continuation in a forest.

Sacholski arrived in China on Aug.23 at the invitation of the China Education Association for International Exchange.