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After the desert turns green, harder work begins_我的网站

A |     一人独居，两眼惺忪，三餐外卖，四季淘宝……对于不少在大城市工作的年轻人来说，这种独居的生活习惯已成日常。    

    Shi Jianyang (L) and his grandfather check the growth of crops on a farmland near a forest area along the Maowusu Desert in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 2026.(Xinhua)A drone sweeps above the pine forest, sending images of the woods to a screen below. Under the trees stands Shi Jianyang whose grandfather and hundreds of villagers came 40 years ago with shovels and saplings to stop advancing sand.
At 29, Shi belongs to a new generation of desert-control workers equipped with drones, machines and remote irrigation systems. An earth auger can now do in a day what once required about 200 laborers, while a single phone can control drip irrigation across more than 1,000 mu (about 66.67 hectares) of woodland.
For the older Shi's generation, the challenge was getting trees to survive in moving dunes. For the grandson, it is figuring out how to make those forests healthier and more resilient for decades to come.
Their story captures a broader shift in desert control along the southern edge of the Maowusu Desert in northwest China's Shaanxi Province: turning shifting sand into forest was only the beginning.
In 1986, Shi Guangyin, Shi Jianyang's grandfather, led more than 300 villagers into Langwosha, a sandy area in Dingbian County in Yulin City. He had raised 60,000 yuan (about 17,377 U.S. dollars at the time) by selling his family's 84 sheep and borrowing from relatives and banks to contract 3,500 mu of barren sandy land.
The early setbacks were severe. Strong winds destroyed about 90 percent of the saplings in the first year, and about 80 percent of those planted the following year failed to survive.
After seeking advice from forestry experts, Shi and the villagers laid out checkerboard-shaped barriers on windward slopes to hold the sand in place, then planted trees, shrubs and grasses within them. Sapling survival rates rose to about 80 percent.
Over the next four decades, Shi and those working alongside him treated 250,000 mu of sandy and saline-alkali land, with more than 53 million trees and shrubs taking root.
Greening the Maowusu Desert is part of a much larger national undertaking. It is one of the three major battlefronts of China's Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, a decades-long effort to curb desertification across northern China.
China has made desertification control a national ecological priority. Since 2023, the country has stepped up efforts under the program, with greater emphasis on systematic restoration and on consolidating earlier gains.
Decades after the first trees took root, a new challenge emerged. Poplars planted decades ago for their rapid growth began reaching the end of their life cycle, with large numbers of trees dying, while forests dominated by a single species were more vulnerable to pests and disease.
Making a forest was one challenge. Keeping it healthy for another generation is another.
Shi Jianyang grew up watching his grandfather and father work to hold back the sand. His father, Shi Zhanjun, spent years planting trees alongside Shi Guangyin before dying in a road accident in 2008 while transporting saplings.
As a boy, Shi Jianyang sometimes resented the work that had taken his father. He spent summer holidays in makeshift tents in the sandy land, eating meals gritty with sand. During planting season, his father would return home with painful blisters in his mouth.
Yet he eventually chose forestry himself.
After studying forestry technology in university, Shi returned home in 2020 and began working in desert control. His team, initially made up of just seven or eight young locals, later brought in university graduates with expertise in soil science, landscaping and pest control.
The younger generation faced a different question: not simply how to make trees survive, but how to make a forest last.
Shi and his team spent more than 40 days in a 5,000-mu woodland setting up sample plots, measuring rainfall, studying soil microorganisms and tracking tree lodging. They proposed renewing aging forests with better-planned forest structures and expanded the planting of Mongolian pine, a long-lived evergreen species that had been successfully tested locally.
To date, about 50,000 mu of land has been planted with Mongolian pine. As some trees fail to survive and require replacement in subsequent planting seasons, the cumulative area of planting operations has reached about 65,000 mu.
Technology has also changed daily work. Drones patrol forests from the air, mechanized equipment dig planting pits, and irrigation can be managed remotely. Sapling survival rates, which Shi Guangyin's generation had raised to about 80 percent through improved sand-control and planting methods, have climbed further to about 92 percent with greater mechanization and more precise management.
Shi said the changes can be felt on the ground. Strong sandstorms have become rare, winds are weaker inside the forest, and the ground stays moist longer after rain. Summer days beneath the trees also feel cooler, while morning dew appears more often. The changes lead him to rethink desert control.
His approach also reflects a broader effort in China's desert regions to link ecological restoration with local livelihoods, giving communities a stronger economic stake in protecting restored land.
With his grandfather's support, Shi and his team have been looking for ways to make better use of the restored land as ecological conditions improve. They have developed potato seedlings suited to sandy soil, promoted greenhouse farming, and set up a livestock cooperative, while increasingly growing potatoes, watermelons and peppers on land once prone to losing water and nutrients.
Shi has also turned to livestreaming e-commerce to market potatoes and other local farm produce, while developing forest-based health and leisure projects. More than 2,000 local residents have seen their incomes rise steadily as farming, livestock breeding and other businesses have developed.
"We used to fear the sand and keep away from it. Now we understand it and know how to make use of it," Shi Guangyin said. "Today, there are opportunities to make a living everywhere in this sandy land."
Across Yulin, forest coverage has risen from 1.8 percent in 1949 to 34.8 percent, while shifting dunes that once encroached on villages have been brought under control.
For Shi Jianyang, however, the green landscape is not proof that the work is finished. "Planting a tree is not difficult," he said. "The difficult part is looking after it for decades."
The grandfather generation learned how to stop the sand. The young generation is learning how to make what grew there last.
    Shi Jianyang (R) and his grandfather check tree growth in a forest area in Dingbian County in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 2026. (Xinhua)
。“空巢青年”这一概念指的是那些与父母及亲人分居、单身且独自租房的年轻人，尤其是在北上广深这些发达城市。据统计，2021年我国约有9200万处于独居状态的“空巢青年”。相较于老年群体的被动“空巢”，青年群体的大多出于自我实现的主动选择。

B | 但同时，很多“空巢青年”的城市生活面临难题：就业压力大、住房条件差、社交圈相对封闭、社会支持网络较弱……不少人感慨，“空巢”既是居住状态，也是心态；既是理想之梯，也是无奈之举。享受着绝对自由不被打扰的生活，但也会在人生的某些时刻，感到无比的孤独。图源：卡乐图片 摄影/贾琼一个人，一座城“世界那么大，我想去闯闯。”硕士毕业后，姜阳放弃了家乡县城朝九晚五的工作机会，加入北京某互联网公司做产品经理。读书时，北漂在他眼里带着浪漫色彩。

C | 然而他很快发现，北漂生活滋味万千，美好与艰辛并存。为了通勤方便，姜阳在公司附近租了一间9平方米的次卧，房租占工资的三分之一。两个合租室友也是男生，但由于作息时间不同，平时很少打照面，最多的交流是在缴纳水电费时，“像是住在一个屋檐下的陌生人。”姜阳感慨道。

D | 随着工作日益忙碌，周末用来休息都不够，“只想瘫在床上刷短视频”。图源：卡乐图片 摄影/宁颖田苗也曾怀揣着对北漂的向往，在大学毕业后不顾家人的反对，执意辞去了家乡小学教师的工作。只有小姨表达了支持：“想去大城市就去吧，去体验体验，反正你还年轻，也没有人指望你真的做出什么，大不了再回来也没关系。”在北京的工作屡屡受到委屈和压迫，经历着新人的工作繁忙，让人精疲力竭。田苗在通勤的时候看着堵了好几公里的马路，钻进地铁站等了好几趟才能挤上去的5号线，一口气坐到终点站。她时常会想，在这个如此热闹的地方，为什么人会感觉到如此的孤独？幸运的是，她遇到了一只流浪猫。在养猫好友的劝说下，她把这只小家伙带回了家。取了个名字叫“二三”，人生不如意十八九，可与人言无“二三”。后来的日子里，“二三”在很多个孤独的时刻，成了田苗心灵的慰藉。图源：卡乐图片 摄影/宁颖享受自由，不断沉淀关于这样一个庞大的群体，褒贬两种声音自然也是不绝于耳。有人认为，“空巢”是每个人人生阶段的必经时期，人总是需要这样一个阶段完成从“半自治”到“自治”的转变，与原生家庭分离并且真正承担起自我管理的责任。从事设计行业的崔婕独自租住在北五环的一居室，“外卖和快递小哥比邻居都熟”是生活的常态。尽管来北京已经5年，但她最常联系的朋友，依然是发小和同学。

E | “她们在深圳和杭州，都是‘空巢青年’。”崔婕说。“一个人住，才知道自己能搞定这么多事。”独居生活让崔婕熟练掌握了换灯泡、通马桶、修水管等技能。在完全属于自己的生活空间里，她看电影、做瑜伽、考证书，业余时间“没有人打扰，是学习和沉淀的好时候”。独居生活能够提高年轻人自身的时间管理、职业规划能力，是一种很好的历练。从经济角度看，“空巢青年”催生了孤独经济，带动了小家电、外卖、宠物、电竞等新业态发展，这一群体正成为未来消费经济的风向标。图源：卡乐图片 摄影/贾琼背后的隐忧逐渐浮现“没有朋友一起玩”“周末闲下来会觉得孤单”……“空巢青年”因社交关系单薄且平时工作忙，或被动或主动地陷入无社交圈、无归属感、无交往动力、无长远规划的“四无”境地，心理则处于一边享受孤独，一边又渴望陪伴的矛盾状态中。与“空巢”相伴的孤独、悲观情绪，长期来看不利于年轻人的身心健康和社会交往。生活成本高、房价高、租房费用高等现实，进一步加剧了“空巢青年”问题的出现。图源：卡乐图片 摄影/宁颖据媒体调查，在大城市，不婚不育的女性数量日益庞大，平均婚育年龄一再推后。专家表示，由于“空巢青年”群体背井离乡，被迫离开了传统的社交圈和相亲圈，既缺少低成本且可靠的交友渠道，又失去了传统相亲圈所提供的结婚对象。短期来看，“空巢青年”群体有可能出现身心问题，影响青年群体劳动力质量；长期来看，将导致生育率下降，人口拐点提前出现，加剧人口老龄化问题。

F | 此外，“空巢青年”现象还暴露出青年与父母相隔两地越来越多的现实，埋下了未来老人照料等隐忧。“空巢”何以“筑巢”？调查显示，缺乏感情寄托和居住条件差，是“空巢青年”面临的两大困境。“筑巢”离不开自身的努力，也需要政策的支持。专家认为，要重视城市软环境的建设，加大基本公共服务的供给，针对青年群体“急难愁盼”的住房、就业、婚育等问题重点发力。例如，优化保障性住房供应，放宽租赁型保障房申请的户籍限制等。此外，缺乏交友渠道是“空巢青年”面临的普遍难题。

G | 专家提议，相较于速成的相亲模式，工会、共青团、妇联等组织可以通过购买服务等方式，组织高质量的活动，让志趣相投的年轻人互相认识。图源：卡乐图片 摄影/贾琼年轻人也应走出“虚拟社交”，拾起兴趣爱好，参与读书会、爬山等线下活动，基于共同爱好产生的友谊，更易产生精神层面的共鸣，有助于先摆脱心理上的“空巢”。“空巢青年”带着些许无奈与自嘲的意味，是年轻人在网络中“抱团取暖”，以缓解自己的孤独和焦虑。在专家看来，对于志在远方的年轻人来说，“空巢”只是过渡阶段，只要耐得住寂寞和辛苦，终将成就精彩而丰富的人生。正如《瓦尔登湖》作者梭罗写道的：“世上只有一种成功，那就是以自己的方式度过一生”。来源：透视社综合中国青年报、人民网、北京青年报报道责编/制作：刘淞菱校对：李旭颖审核：龚紫陌。

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Published on:09:39:48