It is hard to imagine that this land of green fields and a winding river was once a stretch of barren, crimson hills. In Changting, Fujian province, decades of persistence have turned a place of severe soil erosion into green hills and clear waters where trees grow thick and birds return. Behind that transformation are consistent governance and a people-first approach to development.
From barren red hills
Changting's red soil comes from granite. It is loose, lacks organic matter, and can hold neither water nor nutrients. After decades of over-logging, the topsoil washed away and the hills were left bare. By 1985, soil erosion covered 97,467 hectares, close to a third of the county's total area. In summer, the exposed ground could reach 60 to 70 degrees Celsius, crops struggled to grow, rivers silted up, and rural communities fell into poverty.
Bringing the mountains back to life
Restoration was not easy. Ma Xuemei, a local farmer, was among the first to plant trees on the hills. She recalled that the mountain looked lifeless at the time, and that people said she was wasting her time. She and her neighbors worked out a method: first planting fast-growing Bahia grass to bind the soil, then gradually adding shrubs and trees to stabilize the steep slopes bit by bit. As she put it, they grew grass and planted trees because they wanted the mountain to live again.
Policy support kept increasing. Fujian raised its provincial funding for Changting from 800,000 yuan to 10 million yuan a year, about 1.5 million US dollars. A former soil and water conservation official recalled that during his time leading Fujian, Xi Jinping made five fact-finding trips to Changting, stressing that the work should be done even if it meant tightening the belt.
The birds know first
Today, Changting's barren hills have become orchards of chestnuts and oranges, young people who had left are returning for jobs, and a national wetland park has been built along the Tingjiang River. If the environment is good, the birds know first. Records show that 345 bird species have now been documented locally, about 85 more than in a 2019 bird atlas, and northern lapwings have grown from a handful in 2016 to flocks of more than 300 each year.
From soil erosion to green hills and clear waters, Changting has told, over several decades, a story of patience and persistence. It is also a reminder that there is no shortcut to ecological restoration, and that only sustained effort can clothe the hills in green again.
