Published on: 2026-08-25
Source: People’s Republic of China — Translation
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Hohhot, August 25 /Xinhua/ — For more than a quarter of a century, an American retired teacher and a Chinese woman fighting desertification lived on opposite shores of the Pacific Ocean, but they were connected by old photographs, a newspaper, and a forest. On Sunday, they finally met face to face.
Descending the escalator at the Ordos airport in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region /Northern China/, Ronald Sakolski was wiping tears with his right hand while holding a bouquet in his left.
Below stood Yin Yuzhen, a woman who had been fighting for over forty years to restore life to Maowusu /”Mu-Us”/, the fourth largest sandy desert in China. The short descent on the escalator was the final stage before their long-awaited reunion 26 years after their first personal meeting.
Their friendship began in 1999, when R. Sakolski taught English at a school in Henan Province /Central China/ – more than 11,000 km away from his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as part of a teacher exchange program between the two countries.
One ordinary evening, his attention was drawn to a television program. On the screen was Yin Yuzhen, who was planting trees to hold back the advancing sands of the Maowusu Desert.
This sandy land, located partly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shaanxi province, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, has been one of the forefront frontiers of China’s fight against desertification in the north for many years. This campaign began back in 1978 and is supposed to continue until 2050.
But for Yin Yuzhen, the fight against sand had never been just an abstract nationwide initiative. In those years, a single windy night was enough for sand to fill the doorway of their dugout up to the very threshold. There were grains of sand in the food, dirt floated in the water, and all around, as far as the eye could see, stretched endless yellow sands disappearing beyond the horizon.
By 1999, Yin Yuzhen had planted trees on about 30,000 mu / approximately 2,000 hectares / of barren land – an area roughly equivalent to about 2,800 standard football fields.
“I was so moved that I cried,” Ronald Sakolski recalled, thinking back to that evening. “Honestly, I can’t tell you why. Something happened to me. I just felt that I had to help.”
Over the next two months, he contacted more than ten organizations across the United States. One of Boston’s charitable organizations agreed to provide a grant of $5,000 USD.
At the time, for Yin Yuzhen, this donation was an overwhelming sum – enough to build a house, cover the costs of raising children, and provide her family with a completely different life. However, Yin Yuzhen spent all this money on seedlings, keeping only one banknote as a memento.
In May 2000, R. Sakolski boarded a train in the city of Luoyang /Henan Province, Central China/, then switched to car transport and, shaking over a sandy road, went to see the seedlings with his own eyes.
Later he described this area as deserted: “No roads, no trees, no houses. We were just driving from one dune to another.”
Then he noticed Yin Yuzhen. “She emerged from the pit,” R. Sakolski recounted. They did not speak each other’s languages and communicated solely through gestures and smiles. Yin Yuzhen showed him how to plant trees.
The seedlings seemed so fragile to him that, in his opinion, they would hardly ever grow taller than his knees. Deep down, he could not imagine how this sandy plot would ever become a forest. He told her outright: “It’s impossible.”
That evening, Yin Yuzhen and her husband invited him to their home for dinner and prepared noodles for him.
“Tasty,” recalled R. Sakolski.
A few months later, R. Sakolski returned home, and they lost contact. On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, he continued telling his students about a Chinese woman trying to turn the desert into a green land. Meanwhile, in China, every time Yin Yuzhen met an American, she would take out an old photo of R. Sakolski and ask if they knew how to get in touch with him.
REUNION ON THE INTERNET
Year after year, Yin Yuzhen’s searches led to nothing, until one video and a social media post achieved what had eluded her for many years.
In May of this year, Yin Yuzhen, standing in front of the forest she had nurtured for decades, held an old dollar bill—the very one she had saved from the money collected by R. Sakolski. Looking into the camera, she said, “Mr. R. Sakolski, if you see this video, I invite you to come to China again and see the forest that grew from the money you sent us.”
This appeal instantly spread across the internet. Within just a few hours, R. Sakolski began receiving messages in the form of emails and text messages from strangers who told him that a Chinese woman was looking for him. Less than 26 hours after Yin Yuzhen posted the video, he was found. Then they reestablished contact over the internet.
Then he was sent photos and videos. R. Sakolski saw for the first time that the seedlings he once considered too small and insignificant had grown into a forest of more than 50,000 trees.
“Amazing. Absolutely amazing,” he said.
A DREAM COME TRUE
Arriving in Beijing early last Sunday morning, R. Sakolski received mooncakes “yuebing” from Yin Yuizhen, a traditional Chinese delicacy symbolizing the reunion of people, and tomatoes grown on sandy soil. Later that same afternoon, he flew to Ordos.
“This is a fulfilled dream of the woman who is the heroine of this story,” he told journalists gathered around them at the local airport.
“I never thought I would see her again,” said R. Sakolski. This visit allowed him to understand one of the peculiarities of Chinese culture – the importance of keeping a promise. Yin Yuizhen promised that the seedlings would take root and grow, and that one day he would be able to return and see them with his own eyes.
Today, including the trees planted with funds raised by R. Sakolski, Yin Yuuzhen and her family have planted trees on 70,000 mu of land, which is approximately the size of 6,500 standard football fields. Poplars, spruces, and pines now rustle in the wind, and birds chirp in the branches.
According to official data, about 85 percent of the Maowusu Desert territory has been restored. Between 2021 and 2025, China accounted for approximately one quarter of the world’s increase in green vegetation cover, and the country managed to restore about 152 million mu of desertified land.
R. Sakolski noted that when he was raising funds in 1999, he did not expect anything in return.
“You can’t give something and then expect something in return,” he said in an interview with a Xinhua News Agency correspondent. “I raised this money because I wanted to thank China and help make China a little more beautiful. And that’s all.”
On Monday afternoon, R. Sakolski was walking on a carpet of fallen leaves, while Yin Yuizhen was leading him to a tall and sturdy poplar tree over 10 meters high, located in the grove named in his honor.
He could hardly believe it. This was the very tree that he and Yin Yuizhen had planted together 26 years ago. Back then, the sapling was no thicker than a finger and swayed in the wind as if it could be engulfed by the sea of sand at any moment.
Yin Yuizhen handed him a shovel. “Let’s plant one more,” she said, and they both bent down. Yin Yuizhen held the seedling while R. Sakolski tamped the soil around its roots. His hands trembled slightly, but the movements were confident.
“I planted a tree of friendship in Inner Mongolia,” he said.
FRIENDSHIP FOR AGES
More than a dozen members of Yin Yuqzhen’s family from various places came to the meeting with R. Sakolsky. Red chili peppers hung at the entrance, small pumpkins lined the walls, and the yard was neatly swept.
“I asked my children to come because I hope that the friendship between our families will last for centuries,” said Yin Yuzhen. “I want my children and grandchildren to remember this.”
For R. Sakolsky, reuniting with Yin Yuizhen and her family is more than just a forest. It is a reminder that no good deed, no matter how small, goes unrewarded. Over time, even the smallest act of kindness can take root, spread, and grow into something no one could have imagined.
The story of R. Sakolski and Yin Yuzhen is another thread in the long history of friendly relations between the peoples of China and the United States: from American volunteer pilots who fought side by side with Chinese troops during World War II, to the historic visit of the US table tennis team to China in 1971, and the recent many years of performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra in that country.
During his stay in China from August 23 to September 1, R. Sakolski will also participate in the teacher exchange program between China and the United States and will return to Henan Province, where, among other things, he will meet with teachers and students at the school where he once taught.
A retired history teacher believes that, despite people looking different and belonging to different cultures, deep down we are all the same.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, Chinese or American, we all love our families, life, and the Earth,” he said.
Americans and Chinese need to “focus on what unites us, not on the differences,” noted R. Sakolski, who also hopes that by the end of the trip his words will reach people around the world: Chinese and Americans “can work together for the sake of peace.”
“I see opportunities for cooperation between the USA and China,” said R. Sakolski. “Therefore, I will not give up. She never gave up. The word “give up” is not in her vocabulary. Together we will manage.” -0-
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