Across China: Plenty of room for growth of forests

Chen Jiafen, 60, often takes a 10-minute stroll on a white slab road to visit the "Tree God".

For generations, Chen's family had lived in the shadow of a 4,700-year-old ginkgo tree in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Chen's family and neighbors moved in 2011 to make room for the tree, which is 50 meters tall and can only be encircled by 13 grown-ups. Its vast roots permeate the foundations of nearby buildings.

"The great tree answers our prayers and protects our village. We had to return the favor," Chen said. The village of 18 Miao families now live in new homes about one kilometer away.

The tree needs protection as fire and smoke from cooking could hurt it, Yang Ping, deputy chief of Changshun County forestry bureau. The soil around it has grown barren and needs fertilizing.

The county spent two million yuan (about 310,000 U.S. dollars) on new homes for the villagers and invited experts to take care of the tree: removing dead branches, treating wounds and dealing with pests. Three lightening rods have even been camouflaged as branches to avoid spoiling its natural beauty.

It is not just in Changshun that people have gone to great lengths to protect trees. A total of 70 billion yuan (about 11 billion U.S. dollars) was spent by 78 cities in 2014 on forestry, Zhang Jianlong, chief of China's State Forestry Administration, announced during an urban forestry conservation meeting in east China's Anhui Province on Tuesday.

A campaign to "bring forests into cities and surround cities with forests" is combining successful experience from abroad with Chinese reality, Zhang said.

"In the future, we will try to move away from the enclosed management of green spaces and bring forests into communities and people's lives, to make forests more accessible and enjoyable to people in both urban and rural areas," Zhang said.

A total of 21 cities were awarded the title of "State Forest City" at the meeting, increasing the number of state forest cities to 96. Endi