Greening the desert, together. A TV story about a Chinese woman fighting desertification in Inner Mongolia unexpectedly sparked a friendship that would last nearly three decades. Deeply moved by Yin Yuzhen's determination to plant trees in the Maowusu, the fourth-largest sandy area in China, American teacher Ronald Sakolsky raised $5,000 to support her work. Today, that act of kindness has grown into more than 50,000 trees in the desert. After years apart, the two recently reconnected, reviving a remarkable story of perseverance, compassion, and people-to-people friendship between China and the United States.