Satellite images taken in August 2009 show the wind-and-sand zone along the ancient defence in Yulin City on the Loess Plateau has turned from yellow to green, according to the province’s forestry department.
Yulin’s forestry chief Li Junzhi, said, "Compared with images taken in 2000, the forest has expanded about 400 kilometers northward from Yan’an City in the heartland of the Loess Plateau. It’s a result of sustained afforestation."
English.News.Cn reports China began an ambitious afforestation project in 1978 to curb desert encroachment and soil erosion in the northwestern and northeastern regions. The tree-planting, which created a new forest belt running 7,000 kilometers east to west, also aimed to reduce the intensity of the sandstorms that hit Beijing-centered north China.