An aerial view of Xiaonanshan Forest Park in Youyu county, in Shanxi province, on Aug 7, 2018. Sitting on the edge of the Ordos Desert, in Shanxi province, Youyu county was for centuries a barren land suffering from sandstorms and soil erosion. When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the county's green coverage rate was less than 0.3 percent. After years of trial and error in planting trees, the local woodland area has increased to about 2,000 sq km -- more than half of the county's area. [Photo/Xinhua]