In 1999, while working as an English teacher in China, Ronald Sakolsky was moved to tears by a TV report about Yin Yuzhen, a rural Chinese woman battling the encroaching sands of the Mu Us Desert in northern China by planting trees.
Sakolsky spent two months raising $5,000 to support her efforts. The money helped Yin painstakingly plant and nurture a forest of roughly 50,000 trees.
Now 69, Sakolsky has returned to China for his third visit. Yin was there to welcome him at the airport. Both were moved to tears as the longtime friends embraced.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service■
