Fighting desertification: A man's mission to make the Gobi desert green

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It is one man’s war against the desert. Every day, for the past 15 years, Tububatu has been turning some 13 hectares of the massive Gobi Desert green, relying solely on his pension.

For decades, people here has been trying to reverse the trend of desertification, most attempts have failed. After retiring from local people's congress in 2002, Tububatu decided to put his thoughts into practice. “I want to test if it could work,” he recalled.

At first he planted 50 trees, and now Tububatu could plant a thousand a year.

Photo from Cai Jingxuan

Everyday, Tububatu and his wife will manually water their plants two times or more. After years of practice, he had mastered the skill of cultivating various plants in the desert, such as Haloxylon and desert cistanche. Many of the first 50 trees have blossomed and could now survive on their own.

Photo from Cai Jingxuan

For 15 years, Tububatu and his wife had planted over 10,000 trees in the desert, turning over 13 hectares of sand green. To take care of their trees, they live in this remote and isolated residence. The nearest town is nearly 100 kilometers away.

They have three kids, who have been trying to persuade them to move to the county and live with them. But the couple are happy and content with their life in the desert.

Photo from Cai Jingxuan

His wife has been supporting him all along, even though she just had a brain surgery.

Despite many critics or misunderstandings with the local people, Tububatu still believe that his action will change the situation in the desert.

Home of Tububatu. /Photo from Cai Jingxuan

Tububatu had received a lot of sarcastic remarks, people saying that his attempts to make the desert green is bound to fail. It may be true, but he doesn’t mind as long as he can inspire more people to join him.

Photo from Cai Jingxuan

His efforts are not in vain as more people start to learn how to grow plants in sand from him. The desert cistanche is a popular Chinese medicine material that could be sold at over two hundred yuan per kilogram.

Tububatu said he had invested around 800,000 yuan so far, almost everything he has. At the age of 65, he said he will continue his work here as long as he can.