PLANTING HOPE IN THE SANDS

Young volunteers reinvigorate fight on desert front line

As spring winds sweep across the Gobi Desert in Northwest China, thousands of young people are heading into the sands with shovels, saplings and a shared determination to hold back the desert from March to May. It has become an unexpected destination for many Chinese Gen-Zers, not for sightseeing, but for planting trees and searching for a sense of purpose.

Over the past three years, more than 100,000 volunteer visits from across the country have helped restore about 1,000 hectares of desert through large-scale tree planting and sand-control efforts.