STORY: China's anti-desertification practice amazes international students
SHOOTING TIME: June 14, 2024
DATELINE: June 17, 2024
LENGTH: 00:00:57
LOCATION: LINGWU, China 
CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT

SHOTLIST:
1. various of international students visiting the Baijitan national nature reserve
2. SOUNDBITE (English): RICHARD DJURIST NGENZI, Tanzanian student, Ningxia Medical University

STORYLINE:

A group of 25 students from over 10 countries visited the Baijitan national nature reserve in northwest China's Ningxia on Friday, marveling at China's efforts in combating desertification.

Ningxia is surrounded by desert on three sides. Baijitan, edged by Maowusu, one of China's major deserts, is one of the hardest-hit place, highly vulnerable to sandstorm catastrophes.

Over the past 70 years, with the unremitting efforts by local people and volunteers, 680,000 mu (45,333 hectares) of trees have been planted, raising the local forest coverage rate to 41 percent. The afforestation has curbed the expansion of the desert.

The students practiced making straw-checkerboard sand barriers after a desert walk and learned about China's anti-desertification experience.

SOUNDBITE (English): RICHARD DJURIST NGENZI, Tanzanian student, Ningxia Medical University
"So I have something variable which I can teach when I go back to my country. If there are areas that have dry land and they want to change them into a land that would be green, then I can share my experience that I got from here in Lingwu, here Baijitan, to other people in my country and anywhere else in the world."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Lingwu, China.
(XHTV)