Li Yunsheng

Li Yunsheng is a Chinese man known for his reforestation efforts. Residing in the Shanxi Province in Youyu county for seven decades Li and the people of Youyu have spent day after day conditioning their lives centered around the cause of afforestation. At 65 years old, Li Yunsheng found a calling in nature by planting hundreds of trees around Matou Mountain. Born at Matoushan Village in a harsh desert climate Li lived in an exposed barren land deprived of life and desolate in nature. The difficulty of the environment made it toilsome to cook and boil water forcing Li and his family to eat foods simple in nature that were flower-based and drink water that was left untreated.^[1]

Li had been discharged from the military after being stationed in the People's Liberation Army in 1984. He soon found work as a driver, eventually establishing his own driving school. Living in the village with his wife and three children, Li found that the land was harsh and unforgiving, and they struggled to get by. In 2002, the Youyu Government relocated 20 households in the Matoushan Village due to these remote, barren conditions.^[2] However, Li felt as though he could not part with the village. Rather than leaving and relocating himself and his family, he instead opted to stay and improve the overall atmosphere of the village and the sandy Matou Mountain. However, Li had trouble finding support for his passion, as family members and friends mocked him for spending all his money on shrubs and pines in order to fix the soil.^[2]

Li travelled up the mountain every day, packing a lunch and a cool drink to aid him on his journey. He was able to contract about 83 hectares of Matou Mountain and used the land acquired to spread his forest.^[2] As Li described, he had much trouble planting initially, much like the efforts the Chinese Government puts in its Great Green Wall initiatives with the Gobi Desert trees can combat the harsh conditions of the desert and without them, saplings will have difficulty surviving initially. The desert winds are fierce, and saplings with no support cover from other trees are often battered through sandstorms and the harsh winds that reside in deserts. Li had a solution for this, though as through trial and error his methods as he stated, "First I wrapped the roots of saplings with plastic bags, stabilized the roots with mud deep inside the sandy land. After two or three years, I dug the sand and moved away from the plastic bags. Through this way, the saplings could be rooted stably in sandy lands regardless of the wind."^[1] Planting trees upwards of five times repetitively for them to survive, Li was determined to change the surrounding landscape. He quickly soon found out that in order to plant the mountain he lacked the constant movement of supplies as there was no road and all of his supplies were forcing him to carry them on foot, a challenge that crippled his progress for a time. Something had to be done in order for his dream to become a reality,  he needed to have a road. If a road did not come the issue of watering the saplings as well as plant more would cause the progress Li had made to fall flat.^[1]

After receding into debt as a result of his massive spending for his tree-planting passion, accumulating five million Yuan in debt ($726,000) A road proved to be his salvation as the Wang Jian of the transportation Bureau elected for the creation of a road which Li was able to use to pay back most of his debt through exporting cattle and facilitate the purchasing of more trees.^[2] The road made the Transportation of raw materials all the better. Li initially would spend upwards of 100,000-200,000 yuan each year to get his operation off the ground. In contrast, in more recent years, his forest has become so lush that he finds that he only needs to spend about 10,000 a year to replant old trees that have died and proper forest management. He attributes this massive spending to his love of trees, stating; "What I'm aiming for...I really don't know the answer. I just simply love trees." ^[2]

As a result of his efforts, Youyu has been transformed into an extensive forest that has upwards of 130 million trees in its vicinity. Recently Li has taken up a breeding business that has allowed him to turn a profit on this land by earning upwards of 300,000-500,000 yuan of profit as well as his cattle business made possible by the road into town.^[1] The soil surrounding the county has become more fertile in nature as well as boosting the business dealings of Shanxi Youyu Tuyuan Industries.^[1] With the improvement of the environment, the company has been able to plant and harvest good quality scallions and even make a substantial profit from them, which was not possible years ago when Li first began.