The old man began his journey of redemption after retiring as a lumberman in 1989. "I had been felling trees for almost two decades," says Zhao Xihai, 71, from his moderate home at the Pizhou Forest Farm in the mountain, in Huadian of Jilin province.
"I feel I owe back something to the mountains. It is our responsibility to leave more trees for our offspring," he says.
By the time he became known to the outside world, 19 years after he first started, Zhao had planted roughly 100,000 trees.
Zhao was recently awarded the title 2007 Green Chinese along with nine others who have contributed to China's environmental protection.
"My next target is to grow one million seedlings for the public. I'm healthy and can go on planting trees," Zhao says.
He has come under the spotlight not only for his special efforts but also for his simple ways. At the award ceremony, when the host presented him with a pair of gloves from his friend, the old man said: "It's of no use. Most of time I don't wear gloves while working, for it wears out in just half-a-day."
Zhao's daily life is simple. Every dawn, he heads for the mountains with a wicker basket on his back and a pickaxe in one hand to attend to his trees till it's dark.
On one such morning recently, the diminutive Zhao in worn-out cotton-padded clothes walks to the woods with his youngest son. Zhao clears the weeds around the trees and spreads a plastic sheet to collect the fallen seeds, while his son, Zhao Jingchun, 38, climbs barefoot about 20 meters up the trees, cuts the seeds on top with a sickle tied to a 5-meter pole.
"We have to finish before sunrise, otherwise the wind will make it dangerous," Zhao says. He used to work alone till two years ago, when he suffered a stroke.
"These are rare trees that do not produce seeds every year," says Zhao, fingering the seeds and peeling a pod to expose the purplish inside. "Great trees. They are pest-resistant. The purple part tastes bitter like herbal medicines and can keep pests from eating the seeds." He then pops the purplish inside into his mouth.
The veteran forest worker has many tales to tell of his experiences in collecting seeds. "We once carried a telescope and sat on trucks to do our search. Most seeds are yellowish, like wheat heads, hanging from the top of trees."
The mountains are his friends. He knows every spring in the mountains: Which ones are sweet and which ones do not freeze in winter. "I am happy in the mountains, listening to birds chirping," he says with a smile. He revels in sharing the mountains with squirrels, snakes, woodpeckers, wild boars and wild hares.
"Once when a squirrel saw me, it put a walnut it was eating on its head and stood on its hind legs. It made me laugh - its small head was just the size of a walnut," he says.
Bears are a relatively rare sight for the locals, but they are familiar with bear stories. Zhao once cut a tree and out came a bear. "It was winter about 40 years ago and it was hibernating after having climbed up about 20 meters to sleep in a hole on top of the trunk. It appeared it didn't understand why the tree had fallen. It was not afraid of us, and just walked away slowly, as if it was uncomfortable with the cold."
Illiterate, Zhao's knowledge of ecological preservation comes from working with the land. He observes and feels the effects of pollution and environmental deterioration.
"Mud-rock flows leave deep ditches in the mountains. I often walk around the mountains near the Songhua River. I can see the mud-rock flows bypass the areas with trees and make a turn to the areas without trees, leaving ditches the height of a house. It's obvious - trees can prevent mud-rock flows from flushing away the soil."
"The sight makes me heart ache. How much good soil is washed away every year?"
He has passed on his feelings for the land to his son. "In the past, we could easily net a lot of fish in the rivers, but nowadays there are not that many," Zhao Jingchun says. "My father and I collect batteries after seeing on the TV news that batteries could seriously pollute the water and soil."
But some of Zhao's neighbors do not quite understand his efforts and dub him "stubborn silly Zhao".
"He has even planted trees on land that some neighbors have illegally used to grow crops such as corn and soybean. Many people are angry with him," says Yin Xianjun, another forest worker.
"He has never asked for money for planting the trees, growing the seedlings, cleaning the farm toilets or planting flowers in the community," Yin adds.
Zhao's stubbornness has come from a life of hardship. His father was bedridden with handicapped legs and his mother died when he was eight. Fearing starvation for his son, his father "sold" him to another family as a laborer in exchange for meals for Zhao and grain to the family.
"When they ate, I faced the wall, waiting for the scraps. When any sheep I tended were taken by wolves, they would whip me badly," he recalls.
He fled after two years when he found the adopted family had reneged on their promise to give grain to his family. "Life in that family trained me to work from dawn to night."
It was a series of tragedies that taught Zhao to appreciate nature and take to the simple life he now leads. His grandfather and uncles were killed when fighting invaders in the early 1930s.
Zhao says, "Villagers did not know who were invading and had thought they were Russians, not Japanese. Three families of our village had promised to fight the invaders, but the others broke their promises and only my family fought and killed almost a company. More Japanese came in, circled the village and took away my family, including my 86-year-old grandfather. They spared my father because he was handicapped.
"The prisoners were put in a cell with water up to their chests. It was filthy and they had little food. On the eve of the Spring Festival, my father brought home all the bodies on a cart."
"I am old enough to know what's right and wrong," Zhao says. "There is only one road in my life - to do the right thing. There is only one version of truth in the world, no other version is possible."
"He felled numerous trees but he has also planted numerous trees," says Zhao's wife Wang Cuilian, 66. She fled starvation to the forest farm in the early 1960s and married Zhao as she found him "kind" and "loyal to his job". They now live on his pension of1,200 yuan (170 U.S. dollars) a month and their only electronic appliance is a TV.
"He is a crane among chickens, as most of his neighbors are out to have a better life, while he is not," says fellow worker Wang Yingchao.
Forest farm head Zhang Weijie says, "He wants to pay his debt to the mountains where he felled trees, and do something good for the people around him. Most have benefited from what he has done."
Some people have told Zhao his 100,000 trees and 200,000 seedlings could make for a tidy sum even if he sells them for only one yuan a piece.
But Zhao says: " My mind is not attuned to money. Having enough food is fine. I don't want to leave much money for my children. They might stop working and be idle all day or even gamble."
Having worked in the mountains all his life, Zhao admits life here is not easy. The government doesn't allow tree felling in most forests. There is not enough work now. "But, it's a good thing," Zhao says. Many forest workers have been laid off, including Zhao's youngest son, who plans to look for a job in the cities.
Talking about his ultimate wish, Zhao says, as he watches his 4-year-old grandson playing, "My children should not starve."
Source: Xinhua
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