About the Author
Xu Yixin, former member of the party leading group, inspector, and first-class senior judge of the Shanghai Municipal High People's Court, the first batch of cadres in Shanghai to aid Tibet, and the secretary of the Dingri County Party Committee in Shigatse at the time.
I first knew Hu Yang on National Highway 312, which runs through the Hexi Corridor of Gansu Province. The four counties of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang are like paradise-like "islands" in the Gobi Desert and the Snow Mountain Wasteland. Through the middle of it, the mountains are scattered with tall or low, staggered, golden poplars, dense places like group armies gathering, sparse places like cavalry formations, fulfilling their innate mission of resisting wind and sand and protecting oases one by one. I was struck by the spectacle in front of me.
Comrade Xu Yixin participated in afforestation
Staying overnight in Jiuquan, on the mural of Tomb No. 5 of Wei Jinding's Family Gate, which is known as the "Underground Gallery of China", a "Poplar Map" made me feel very emotional. A poet said: "From a certain visual effect, the desert and the sea are not much different, both are endless, both are undulating." Thus, on the sea of the desert, the masts that are as dense as the port are poplars; and the ships that tilt as if they are about to sink are also poplars. Poplar poplar, cosmic flood, eternal flowing fang". I don't understand this. The tour guide told me: Legend has it that poplar is born for three thousand years, born without dying for a thousand years, dead without falling for a thousand years, and immortal for a thousand years. On top of it, perhaps tens or hundreds of ancestors and grandchildren have been stacked, dead and alive in the "Sea of Death", fighting against a long time, holding on to a barren desert, clinging to the belief that has remained unchanged for thousands of years, for nothing else, only for immortality. Oh, I seem to have read the poplar, as if I had reacquainted myself with the scale of life.
Scenes of farmers and herders building canals
I really felt the poplar during the tibet aid work twenty-five years ago, because I had the first understanding of the poplar. Dingri County, the first batch of our aid to Tibet, is located at the foot of Mount Everest, with an average altitude of 4500 meters, and is one of the 8 state-level poverty-stricken counties in Tibet that year. The plateau is oxygen-starved, the climate is abnormal, the bare mountain tops do not grow grass, the gray sand is not green, and the dry climate does not rain. There are probably only three types of plants and trees that can survive: one is highland willow. As far back as the Tang Dynasty, when Princess Wencheng entered Tubo in the west to marry Songzan Gampo, the Tang willows brought from Chang'an onwards multiplied for thousands of years, bringing clusters of green to the snowy plateau. One category is sea buckthorn. As long as there is a foothold, it will quickly spread a piece, this bush of vigorous growth, red and yellow dwarf shrubs, there is a rare plant can compare, that is, hardy, hardy and dry. It always laughs at the cold currents of wind and snow, and can still survive under the harsh conditions of the plateau, surround the sand to protect the soil, and contain water and fertile soil. There is also a category of poplars. Although it is difficult to see the appearance of poplars in Tibet, such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Shanxi and other places, you can see the huyang standing alone and standing proudly. In the barren sand of the plateau, it shows a tenacious tension of life, watching over the changes of modern civilization.
Sea buckthorn poplar forest
There is a rare sea buckthorn jungle in Dingri County, and there are sparse poplar trees standing in it, what a precious green treasure land! When we cadres and comrades in the county were planning to expand the streets of the county town along the banks of the Xieger River, we specially enlarged it and opened it into a conservation forest for farmers and herdsmen to inhabit and gather. It was this sea buckthorn poplar forest that gave me and my companions the courage and wisdom to change the face of local poverty.
Whenever the summer is hot and the plateau is full of blue skies, mountaineers and archaeologists of different skin colors at home and abroad flock to Mount Everest, which is wrapped in silver and full of clouds, and begin to aspire to conquer the heart road. In Dingri County, at the foot of Mount Everest, another kind of conquest has also quietly begun, that is, to challenge poverty. My companions and I have walked through this sea buckthorn poplar forest countless times, and we have been impressed by the high vitality of the poplar countless times. In this barren, cold, windy and sandy land, some of the crowns have died, but green branches have protruded from the waist of the body; Some of the small branches in the lower part wither along the trunk, but the top part of the tree is green; Some half of the body seems to have been scorched black, but on one side of the body grew dense foliage; Even the upper part of the tree has lost its bark, revealing the trunk of The White Sensen, but the lower part is still growing happily; Some trees are already creeping to the ground, supported by some branches, and the canopy part is still crookedly stretched upwards... In this scene where seeing is believing, it will give people a taste of what is tenacious and what is called perseverance.
Xu Lin and the leaders of the Bureau came to guide the county planning on a fixed day, and comrade Xu Yixin was the second from the left
I put the county party and government group meeting in this green treasure land, and collectively and collectively issued a complete county-wide poverty alleviation plan like formulating a combat plan. Mobilize the strength of the whole county to plant sea buckthorn poplar extensively, resist wind and sand, protect water and soil, and change the harsh ecological environment; select sites and build development zones, build water canals, open up fertile fields and grasslands, and build new homes; implement a relocation plan to relocate the poor peasants and herdsmen who are not suitable for farming, living, and subsistence as a whole. In the first year, green barley broke ground in the development zone. The following year, a group of poor farmers and herdsmen moved into new homes in the development zone. After opening up the tourism service resources of Mount Everest, the hope of poverty alleviation in the whole county is suddenly like the poplar seeds sprinkled to survive, pushing out the ancient and barren sand soil, and truly seeing that the Tibetan compatriots in Dingri have a very similar spirit and quality to the poplar.
Many years have passed, a number of cadres aiding Tibet have continued to relay efforts, the people of Dingri have worked hard, Dingri has taken off the hat of a poor county as scheduled, the original county planning has become a beautiful reality, the mountains and rivers are still the same, and the appearance of urban and rural areas is different. I really want to go back to the fixed day to take a walk to see the familiar sea buckthorn poplar forest, to touch the body of the poplar that is growing tall and thick, and to feel the unforgettable years. Originally, there was this opportunity last year, but the epidemic variables could not be carried out. I would like to praise the poplar in this small article, just like praising the people who have made unremitting efforts on the road of poverty alleviation and prosperity. The tree of life is evergreen, and the epic of life is eternal!
Source: Shanghai Tibet Aid Association
Editor-in-charge of this issue: Zhang Kun
Submission email: [email protected]
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