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Plant A Tree to Boost Beijing's 'Greening'

Even though Beijing's pretty Spring scenery sometimes disappears under clouds of airborne sand and grit from Mongolia and elsewhere, more and more people are giving their spare time to planting tree saplings both in the city and its environs. In a sense it's the new craze, as well as a positive response to governmental programs to make the capital and surrounding areas as green as possible--a major contribution to the pledge to improve the city's overall environment. Even companies are involved, encouraging their staff to join weekend planting-cum-social trips wherever there is need.

According to the Beijing Bureau of Parks and Plants, this year will see no less than 300 million trees planted in areas totaling 24,000 hectares in more than 300 locations in and around Beijing.

One example was that during a windy weekend last month, more than 1,500 people went to the Temple of Altar (jie tai si) and Tanzhe Temple (tan zhe si) in Mentougou District to plant trees. Using its own resources, the district ensures that at least 95 percent of the trees will reach maturity.

Zhang Liansheng, management office director at the Temple of Altar, said: "Rather than making our tree-planting festival a mere ceremony, we have invested money and personnel to keep the trees alive and thriving. I'm always happy to see so many people come here every year because, with each visit, they can see the trees they planted turning into a forest."

Plant experts give on-site advice to visitors who wish to plant a tree. The cheapest and easiest saplings to plant are cypress, long found in abundance in the mountains to the North of Beijing. Pines are a little more expensive because the saplings are larger and thus require more ground preparation. The most expensive tree is mentougou (gingko), each of which costs about 1,000 yuan. They grow very slowly and need considerable care during growth.