Once barren mountain now a wonderland bathed in light

TAIYUAN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- As night falls, hundreds of tourists flow into the Yuquanshan Suburban Forest Park, a dazzling wonderland with a wide range of lifelike light installations shaped like koi fish, ocean waves and golden dragons.

Nestled at the foot of the West Mountain in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province, the park has become a popular tourism site courtesy of its cherry blossom gardens in spring and light show in winter.

A dozen years ago, however, this landscape was desolate with little vegetation and lots of garbage.

The area was home to more than 100 mineral companies, including gypsum mines and quarries, resulting in more than 200 damaged sites covering an area of nearly 1 million square meters.

In 2009, Taiyuan released a series of incentive policies, encouraging social capital to participate in ecological construction. Zhang Junping applied for involvement in the restoration and treatment project in this area, but had no idea just how tough the task would be.

"Large machinery was hard to reach the hills since they were seriously damaged, and newly planted trees rarely survived," said Zhang, who now manages the park.

He added that workers had to dig pits with electric hammers and climb the mountains with baskets of soil and saplings on their backs.

In order to improve the survival rate of the trees, Zhang diverted water uphill and developed an automatic drainage method for drought and fire prevention.

During the past more than 10 years, Zhang and his workers laid 450 km of irrigation pipelines, planted 5 million trees and built 105 km of roads.

Their efforts have paid off. The vegetation coverage rate in the park has increased from 20 percent to more than 80 percent.

During this year's Spring Festival, a light paradise covering an area of more than 200,000 square meters was built in the park, and the hills were dotted with more than 20,000 strings of colorful lights hanging from trees.

Videos of the light show and ice and snow activities have gone viral on social media, attracting a growing number of tourists.

"I had a good time with my family today, enjoying ice and snow activities during the day, and watching light shows and folk performances at night," said a citizen surnamed Xu, adding that this was their second visit to the area.

Zhang Baosheng, a villager who moved away from the mountain because of the deteriorating environment, has now returned to set up a stall in the scenic spot.

"Over the past few years, the environment has become more beautiful and has offered more convenient means of transportation, providing us with many opportunities," he said.