In 1985, a drunken promise set a young woman on a path that would change not only her life, but the fate of an entire desert.
At just 19 years old, Yin Yuzhen was forced to marry Bai Wanxiang, a man living deep in China’s Mu Us Desert.
On her wedding night, while Bai lay down early to rest, Yin Yuzhen sat awake until dawn, her eyes red from weeping. When she looked out from her tiny dugout home, she saw nothing but endless waves of yellow sand stretching to the horizon. She felt as if her life had ended before it began.
Her new home was a four-square-meter pit carved into a sand dune. To enter, she had to stoop under a doorway so low it nearly grazed her back. Inside, there was nothing but a bed of dry twigs and straw.
Her husband was four years older and came from a family who had battled the desert for generations. Years earlier, Yin’s father had been saved by Bai’s father when a sandstorm left him lost in the dunes. Grateful, the men became sworn brothers, and in a haze of alcohol, her father vowed to give his daughter to the Bai family. Though he regretted it once sober, he felt bound to keep his word.
Life was brutal. There was no electricity or running water. Summers scorched and winters froze. They survived on millet, wild plants, and the occasional scavenged animal carcass. For forty days after her wedding, Yin Yuzhen saw no one but her husband—until, at last, a wandering herder passed by.
The isolation was unbearable. In her loneliness, she would cover footprints in the sand with a basin, pretending someone was still there.
Seven times she tried to flee, and seven times she became lost in the swirling sand. Once, she walked for two days and nights, only to find herself back where she started. That was when she realized the desert was not going to let her go.
At her lowest point, she contemplated ending her life. But in that moment, she remembered her mother’s tearful face the day she left home—and she stepped back from the edge. If she couldn’t escape, she decided, she would have to find a way to survive.
Hope arrived in the form of two poplar saplings she brought home from a visit to her parents. Miraculously, one took root. That little sprig of green whispered a possibility: maybe the desert wasn’t completely invincible.
In 1986, Yin Yuzhen made a bold choice. She sold their only “three-legged sheep”—a wounded animal that was still precious—and used the money to buy 600 young trees.
That spring, she and Bai planted each sapling in the sand around their cellar.
The challenges were immediate. Every day, they walked kilometers to fetch water. Under the searing sun, most of the saplings withered. By summer’s end, fewer than 100 remained. But for Yin Yuzhen, that was enough to keep going.
From then on, reclaiming the desert became her life’s purpose. Bai took work wherever he could to buy more trees, while she stayed behind to plant, water, and protect them.
Every morning she rose at 4 a.m. and worked until late into the night.
Through years of trial and error, she devised a three-layer planting method: shrubs to anchor the sand, trees to form a windbreak, and fruit trees to sustain their livelihood. This innovation transformed survival rates.
But the desert kept testing her resolve.
In 1989, a monstrous sandstorm struck while they were returning with new saplings. The wind tore the trees from their cart and buried them. Yin Yuzhen clung to their ox’s tail, stumbling forward in the blinding grit. When they finally reached home, she didn’t rest—she planted every surviving sapling that same night.
Setbacks never stopped coming.
They flattened kilometers of sand to make water channels, only to watch them swallowed again and again.
She went into premature labor from exhaustion. He developed pneumonia. But neither ever quit.
For the first ten years, the progress was almost invisible. The trees grew painfully slowly, and the dunes kept advancing. Still, she believed that if she didn’t give up, someday the desert would yield.
In the fifteenth year, signs of hope appeared. The dunes near their home began to stabilize. The wind softened. Small animals returned.
After twenty years, their desolate hollow had transformed into an oasis that drew neighbors to settle nearby.
Today, after thirty-six years of relentless labor, Yin Yuzhen and Bai Wanxiang have reclaimed more than 70,000 acres of desert.
They have planted over 20 million trees—forming a vast green barrier against the sands.
Their perseverance has inspired 84 families to join in the mission, proving that even the harshest landscapes can be transformed.
Yin Yuzhen’s story has captured global attention. She has won over 100 honors, including “National Model Worker” and “Green China Person of the Year.” She was the first Chinese woman nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and the United Nations has praised her work as a model of ecological restoration.
What began as a forced marriage became the catalyst for a transformation no one imagined possible.
The young bride who wept in despair became a legend—China’s Desert-Conquering Queen.
Standing in her thriving “green kingdom,” she often reflects on her journey from hopelessness to triumph.
“At first, I only wanted to survive,” she says. “Later, it became my life’s mission.”
Today, the cellar where she once had to crawl inside has been replaced by a bright brick house surrounded by orchards and forests. That place—once a symbol of despair—has become a destination where people come to learn, to marvel, and to be inspired.
Yin Yuzhen’s life is a powerful reminder that in the most unforgiving environments, the strongest life force can grow.
One woman’s 36-year battle against the desert ended in a victory of green.
Photos from: https://www.chinastory.cn/PCzwdbk/chinastory/wap/detail/20190617/1006000000039761560767204146970666_1.html
Peace LiLy 