This is Changting County, southeast China’s Fujian Province.
In front of us is a verdant site with picturesque mountains and clear waters. Once plagued by severe water and soil loss, it was called "Flame Mountain", referring to the fact that no grass grew on it.
On Nov. 27, 1999, Xi Jinping, then deputy secretary of the Party Committee and acting governor of Fujian, came to Hetian Township, Changting County.
Seeing the bare red soil all over the mountain, he made up his mind to spend eight to 10 years rectifying the soil erosion problem in Changting.
Xi also asked someone to send 1,000 yuan to donate a camphor tree.
On this yellowed donation form, the payer’s name is clearly written: Xi Jinping.
When Xi visited Changting in 2001, he specially earthed up and watered the camphor tree.
During Xi’s tenure in Fujian, he traveled to Changting five times to address the soil erosion control issue.
After years of effort, Changting County's soil erosion rate dropped from 31.5 percent in 1985 to 6.57 percent in 2022. There will never be "bare mountains, turbid water, barren fields, and poor people" again.
The camphor tree has witnessed all these changes, and is a "green miracle" that took place on Chinese land.
