How an American teacher’s $5,000 donation helped turn a Chinese desert into a lush forest

HONG KONG — Ronald Sakolsky never thought his money would go this far. What was once a vast, dry desert in northern China has transformed into a lush, green forest of 50,000 full-grown trees, thanks in part to a $5,000 donation he made more than a quarter century ago to a local farmer and “sand-control worker” named Yin Yuzhen. Sakolsky, 69, a retired teacher from Pennsylvania, was amazed to see the transformation in China’s Inner Mongolia region last month when he visited for the first time in 26 years. “Seeing it with my own eyes, that was the biggest surprise,” he told Chinese state media. “I saw pictures, I was told all about it, but until you see it is when you realize that it’s real.” Sakolsky and Yin’s reunion last month has been held up by Chinese authorities as an example of how China and the United States, the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, can work together on global issues such as climate change.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in Washington this week for a summit with President Donald Trump, mentioned Sakolsky’s story in his toast at a state dinner on Thursday, saying it “touches the hearts of many Chinese people and stands as a shining example of the friendly exchanges between our two peoples.” Sakolsky was teaching English