Herders return home to greener pastures

By the time the sun rises over the rolling grasslands of Qinghai province's Gonghe county, 42-year-old Zhao Guofu is already tending to his flock. Sheep dot the pastures like soft clouds beneath a vast sea of photovoltaic panels that stretch as far as the eye can see.

For Zhao, this is more than a daily routine; it's a homecoming.

"I grew up herding sheep here," he says, recalling his childhood in Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture. But as the grasslands degraded and income from sheep dwindled, he had no choice but to leave. For two decades, Zhao joined millions of others in China's wave of migrant workers, laboring far from the open skies he loved.