Passion ignited

In Linxia, Gansu province, Kong Lingxi was drinking tea with a group of his friends 11 years ago, when one of them suggested making full use of their spare time to do something for the public good. The group never expected this casual conversation to inspire the passion that led to the establishment of an environmental NGO.

Kong, 51, said: "All my friends in the group have never smoked or drunk alcohol. The suggestion to make the best use of our leisure time received numerous positive responses."

Knowing that Kong's family owned a plot of wasteland in his hometown, some of his friends light-heartedly suggested that they plant trees on this land, but the idea was taken seriously by others, who believed it was a good plan.

Days later, 40 of Kong's friends headed to his hometown. "My mother treated the group with potatoes for lunch. Afterward, we planted more than 10 mu (0.67 hectares) of trees that day," said Kong, who at the time worked in the local government's labor management office.

After hearing about the group's tree-planting idea, an official from the Linxia Communist Youth League Committee asked Kong to help organize a tree-planting activity for a local school. Kong agreed, and the activity was attended by about 100 students. The voluntary work triggered even greater enthusiasm among participants after it was reported by a local television station.

Some people have traveled from Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, and neighboring Qinghai province to join other tree-planting events organized by Kong and his friends.

"It is way beyond my expectations that our tree-planting activities have since been held annually, apart from this year due to the COVID-19 epidemic," he said.

In view of the enthusiasm among participants, Kong and his friends registered an NGO, the Linxia Ecological and Environmental Protection Association, in 2014. As of last year, more than 4,000 people had taken part in the tree-planting activities, with nearly 100,000 trees taking root on 220 hectares of land.