China's Chongqing rescues over 700 ancient trees

CHONGQING, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality had rescued more than 700 ancient and precious trees as of last year, said the local authority.

The city has adopted a raft of measures since it launched a tree protection campaign in 2018, including treating tree holes, installing protective fences and trunk supports, improving their living environments, and handling threats involving insects and diseases to the trees' health, said the municipal forestry bureau.

Meanwhile, Chongqing has strengthened tree protection through technologies. It created ID cards with QR codes for some ancient trees under protection. Sensors also monitor the displacement, lodging, and growing of several significant trees.

Chongqing is home to more than 25,500 ancient and precious trees, of which over 510 are above 500 years old.

In recent years, Chinese cities have launched various campaigns to strengthen the protection and improve the management of ancient and rare trees nationwide.

In March 2021, the local government revived a 406-year-old dying tree in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, after years of hard work such as setting up hoses next to it and watering it twice a week during the drought season.

In December 2020, Taishan Mountain, a popular UNESCO World Heritage site in east China's Shandong Province, encouraged the public to "adopt" more than 200 ancient and precious trees growing on the mountain.