Workers carry out cliffside greening in Liuzhou, S China’s Guangxi

Thanks to an ecological restoration project, flowers have recently been spotted blooming and the grass is now greener at the cliffside of a mountain, which used to be the site of a mining pit, in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Photo shows a worker planting saplings on a narrow platform built along the cliffside of a mountain in Liuzhou, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 2021. (Photo/Li Hanchi)

With a total investment of over 50 million yuan, the ecological restoration project was kicked off in September 2018 and passed the acceptance stage in April 2021. A total of 22.5 hectares of land has been greened, according to the Guangxi Construction Engineering Group Metallurgical Construction Co., Ltd., who served as the contractor for the project.

“We planted 250,000 saplings on the mountain,” said Chen Chaoyu, a director of the project. Before kicking off the project, the workers had cleared any rocky stones that might fall down from the mountain, built platforms along the cliff with steel and concrete, paved a layer of soil on the platforms and finally installed an irrigation system, Chen introduced. They had also built a ladder along the cliff which is more than 100 meters high to make sure the project could be carried out smoothly and safely.

Photo taken in March 2021 shows a man passing a tree sapling to his co-worker. (Photo/Li Hanchi)

“After the project was completed, we will tend the plants and flowers for a period of about one year to make sure that at least 90 percent of them can eventually survive,” said Chen.

A total of 16 mountains, all of which were previously sites for mining pits, have been restored in the urban area of Liuzhou. So far, the city has greened 64 hectares of mountainous land and made efficient use of 98 hectares of land surrounding the mountains. 

Photo taken in December 2021 shows plants being irrigated on the cliffside of a mountain. (Photo/Li Hanchi)

Photo taken in December 2021 shows workers tending to plants and flowers along the cliffside of a mountain. (Photo/Li Hanchi)

Photo taken in March 2021 shows workers walking from one site to another on platforms built along the cliffside of a mountain. (Photo/Li Hanchi)

Photo taken in March 2021 shows workers climbing a ladder to get onto the platforms for planting tree saplings. (Photo/Li Hanchi)

Photo shows a worker checking the growth progress of a tree sapling. (Photo/Li Hanchi)