那年夏天你去了哪里
From 5,000 USD to 50,000 trees: an American teacher and a Chinese woman's efforts to green a desert_我的网站
一 | 视频：新思想引领新征程丨拓展共建“一带一路”合作新空间 铺就共赢之路来源：央视新闻客户端 习近平总书记指出，“共建‘一带一路’注重的是众人拾柴火焰高、互帮互助走得远，崇尚的是自己过得好、也让别人过得好，践行的是互联互通、互利互惠，谋求的是共同发展、合作共赢”。
"I knew you would come early and sit here until four o'clock and then knock on my door," Sakolsky told Xinhua reporters with a grin. "That's why I was outside." It was, he said, just the way he remembered Chinese people doing things.
His waiting outside was a small gesture of thoughtfulness, one that hinted at a friendship forged nearly three decades earlier between a veteran middle school world history teacher from Plum, a leafy suburb east of Pittsburgh, and a rural Chinese woman who devoted decades to holding back the shifting sands of the Mu Us Desert.
In 1999, while working as an English teacher in China, Sakolsky was moved to tears by a TV report about Yin Yuzhen, a rural Chinese woman who was trying to hold back the shifting sands of the Mu Us Desert in northern China by planting trees. He spent two months raising 5,000 U.S. dollars to help Yin, then a stranger.
Now 69, Sakolsky will return to China this month for his third visit, traveling from Beijing to Luoyang and finally to the Mu Us Desert. He looks forward to reuniting with Yin, giving her a big hug and planting another tree beside her, where shifting sands have given way to a forest roughly 50,000 trees strong.
"It's a miracle," he told Xinhua recently. "There's no other word than it's a miracle."
A JOURNEY HE NEVER PLANNED
Sakolsky's modest two-story home in Plum is not where one might expect an international story to begin. He bought it 32 years ago and raised his family there with Barbara, his wife of 46 years. They have four children and eight grandchildren.
High on one living room wall, "The Sakolskys," in large letters, crowns a display of framed family photos surrounding the words: "Family is where our story begins. Life takes us to unexpected places. Love brings us home."
Asked to sum up his worldview in three words, Sakolsky answered without hesitation: family, respect, kindness -- the values that have anchored his life.
"Family first," he said. "I'm a family man."
That makes what he did in 1999 all the more striking. In his forties, in a doctor's waiting room, he spotted a tiny magazine advertisement recruiting Americans to teach English in China. Without hesitation, he applied, flew to New York for an interview, and was offered the position.
His parents were stunned and came all the way from Florida to talk him out of it: He had four children and a stable teaching career. His oldest daughter was a high school senior, while his youngest son was entering elementary school. But his daughters supported him.
"My dad said, 'You're crazy. How are you going to go away for a year? You have four children, a wife and a house to take care of.' Then he looked at my girls and said to them, 'Are you going to let your dad go to China for that long?'"
"And my girls looked at their grandfather, and I'll never forget this. They said to him, "Whatever dad wants to do, we support him."
With his family's blessing, Sakolsky left for Beijing, then traveled by train to Luoyang three days later. When he arrived at about 9 p.m. that night, the platform was almost empty and dimly lit. For a moment, he felt uneasy until he spotted two Chinese teachers holding up a piece of cardboard with his name written across it.
Teaching at Luoyang Foreign Language School was only one part of Sakolsky's life in China. One of the earliest "lessons" he learned came from watching children kick an empty Coca-Cola bottle between two stones serving as goalposts.
At first, he was puzzled by how they could play without a real soccer ball. "Then I realized it didn't matter to them," Sakolsky said.
"They could play the game, laugh and have fun with a plastic bottle," he said. "So China taught me to appreciate the simple things in life. You don't have to have a lot of money, you don't have to have a big car and a fancy house, and you can still be happy. That was a big lesson that I learned right away."
Beyond the classroom, Sakolsky often volunteered at nearby schools and villages and traveled with Chinese colleagues during school holidays, sharing modest guesthouses, simple meals and long train rides.
Sakolsky told Xinhua such experiences helped him break the ice with his Chinese colleagues, who eventually treated him just like one of them. "That's what I wanted," he said.
Sakolsky also told Xinhua that shortly after he arrived in China, his hosts gave him a Chinese name, Long Fu, or "Happy Dragon."
"I like dragons," he said, laughing, "and I laugh a lot."
A MIRACLE HE NEVER IMAGINED
Every evening in Luoyang, Sakolsky watched a half-hour English news broadcast before heading downstairs to practice tai chi with elderly neighbors.
Then, on an autumn evening in 1999, a brief TV report caught his eye. On the screen was Yin, planting trees by hand with her husband to push back the advancing sands of the Mu Us Desert, he remembered.
The story stayed with him. "I was so touched in the heart, I started to cry," he recalled nearly 30 years later. "I honestly cannot tell you why. Something just happened to me. I just felt like I needed to help."
Over the next two months, Sakolsky spent his evenings contacting more than a dozen organizations across the United States, determined to help the woman he knew only from that five-minute broadcast. After a series of setbacks, a Boston-based charity agreed to provide a 5,000-U.S. dollar grant with no strings attached.
He then spent weeks helping coordinate the cross-border paperwork and communications. By the end of December, word finally came that the money had reached China and was on its way to Yin.
"I expected nothing," he said. "You don't give something expecting something in return. I wanted to thank China and help her make China more beautiful. That was all. I didn't need a thank-you or anything else."
He heard nothing more about the donation until the following May, when the school told him he needed to take a week off for a trip. When he asked his Chinese colleague, Bai Fan, and the New York-based coordinator of the exchange program where he was going, both gave the same reply: "I know, but I cannot tell you, you will cry."
He was flown to Hohhot, the regional capital. At dinner, as Sakolsky sat facing the door, it swung open, and in walked a woman in a pink jacket.
"That's the lady from television!" he recalled. "I jumped out of my seat, and I ran up to Ms. Yin and gave her a big hug."
The next morning, before an audience of about 500 people, Sakolsky was asked to give an impromptu speech. He remembers little of the 20-minute address except its core message: Americans and Chinese "must focus on our similarities and not on our differences," and can work together to plant a forest in the desert.
Afterward, they drove for four hours. "No roads, no timber, no houses," he recalled. "We were just driving over sand dunes in the desert."
When the vehicle finally stopped, there was nothing but sand stretching to the horizon. Then Yin emerged from a hollow in the dunes, where she had been digging for water to irrigate her young trees.
Yin showed him how to plant the trees, which he thought would grow only about knee-high to hold back the sand. "I never thought that it was going to be a 50,000-tree forest," he said. "Back then, I said this was impossible (turning this desert into a forest), but she did it, she and her helpers."
That night, Yin and her husband welcomed him into their home. Nearly three decades later, he still remembers the homemade noodles Yin cooked for him. "Delicious," he recalled softly.
Earlier this year, Yin launched an online search for the American teacher who had helped her plant the first trees. The story eventually reached Sakolsky, who was stunned to learn that the forest had grown to roughly 50,000 trees.
"Fifty thousand trees!" he exclaimed. "I cannot believe it."
Then came photos showing a building and a road where there had been nothing but sand in 1999. "When I go back, I will be amazed," he said. "It's a miracle. There's no other word for it."
Sakolsky insisted that Yin was the real hero. "I'm not the hero of this story," he said. "Ms. Yin is the hero. I just helped."
"Since she was a child, she always wanted to beautify China. It was a lifetime dream of hers, and she has accomplished her dream," he said.
A REUNION HE NEVER EXPECTED
For more than two decades, Sakolsky and Yin lost touch, but China never really left him. His home is filled with reminders of those years: a Year of the Dragon card, a calligraphy scroll, paintings of peonies and pandas, a wooden dragon made by his children, and even a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his first dinner in Luoyang, kept as reminders of Chinese hospitality, though he has never smoked.
Downstairs, in the basement, stands a nearly six-foot replica of a Terracotta Army general, a gift he received after returning to teach in Luoyang in 2004. It stood in his classroom for 17 years before he brought it home upon retiring. Now, he hopes his youngest son, also an educator, will one day give it a place in his own office.
Based on his experience in China, Sakolsky summed up his impression of the Chinese people in three words: respect, simplicity and patriotism. He called China's decades-long fight against desertification remarkable in terms of both scale and dedication.
"China also, with what Ms. Yin did with the forest, taught me how much love the Chinese have for their country," he said. "She was making like no money and still planting the trees. That's what got to my heart."
"The fact that Chinese people are willing to sacrifice and give back because they love their motherland is awesome," he added.
In June, while traveling in Australia, Sakolsky was recognized by a woman from Singapore who had seen a video about his story.
"She was like, 'Oh my god, there are millions of people who have watched this video!'" he recalled, still astonished.
"I'm just a simple teacher," he said. "I live a simple life ... I have four fantastic children and eight fabulous grandchildren, and that's what I love. I never thought anything like this was ever going to happen."
Sakolsky is set to travel to China for a trip late this week.
Asked what he wants to do first when he sees Yin again, he didn't hesitate: "Give her a big hug."
He also hopes they can plant trees side by side once more. For Sakolsky, the reunion holds great significance.
"We're all humans. We all love our families, we all love life, we all love the Earth. We all want peace," he said.
He suggested that everyone can work together to create a peaceful world. "It's not an easy thing, and not a quick thing. It will take time, but it can be done."
"(If) the goal is strong enough, and you don't quit every time you face an obstacle, (if) you keep going, (then) you'll reach the goal. That's what Ms. Yin did."
。今年以来，面对错综复杂的外部环境，我国与共建国家携手，高质量共建“一带一路”，不断拓展共赢发展新空间。
二 | 眼下，地处南半球的智利正值冬季，强降雨、暴雪、寒潮等极端天气频发，往年这个时候，电网运行往往面临巨大压力。而今年，当地电力公司用上了中国的智能预警系统，可以对全国340多个市镇的天气情况进行实时分析，帮助电网提前预判风险点。 智利通用电力公司技术部副经理 乔纳森·迪亚斯：中国的智能系统，让我们能在灾害期间根据预警信息提前部署抢修资源，大大提高了应急响应效率。 探索远亲近邻共同发展的新办法，开拓造福各国、惠及世界的“幸福路”，这是习近平总书记提出共建“一带一路”倡议的根本出发点和落脚点。2013年倡议提出以来，习近平总书记四次出席“一带一路”建设座谈会，三次出席“一带一路”国际合作高峰论坛。
三 | 从倡议提出之初擘画政策沟通、设施联通、贸易畅通、资金融通、民心相通的蓝图，到推动“一带一路”从“大写意”走向“工笔画”；从提出高标准、惠民生、可持续目标，到拓展健康、绿色、数字、创新等新领域合作，在发展的不同阶段，习近平总书记始终为扎实推进共建“一带一路”把握航向，为推动“一带一路”奔向下一个金色十年开启光明前景。 国家发展改革委区域开放司司长 梁林冲：习近平总书记的系列重要论述，深刻阐明了共建“一带一路”不仅是中国扩大高水平对外开放的重大举措，更是世界共享发展红利的广阔舞台。共建“一带一路”以互联互通为主线，深化贸易和产业务实合作，拓展绿色、数字、创新等共赢新空间，广泛开展人文交流和民生合作，为各国共同繁荣带来实实在在的机遇。
四 | 在习近平总书记倡导和部署下，“一带一路”国际合作从无到有，蓬勃发展。一大批标志性工程和“小而美”民生项目落地生根，贸易投资自由化便利化水平持续提升。今天，共建“一带一路”已吸引150多个国家和30多个国际组织加入，成为推动构建人类命运共同体的重要实践平台。
五 | 这个夏天，破纪录热浪席卷欧洲。在西安国际港站，一列列满载空调的中欧班列紧急启程。与以往不同，这些班列采用全程时刻表运行——固定车次、固定线路、固定班期，西安至德国杜伊斯堡最快11天可达，时效较普通班列提升约30%。 西安国际港集团建设运营有限公司 强东峰：这30%的提速，意味着口岸衔接、跨境调度、线路组织实现了全面提质升级。“铁路快通”模式让通关时间从半天缩短到半小时以内。 前7个月，中欧班列共开行12988列，同比增长17.6%。上半年，“空中丝绸之路”航班量超19万架次。“丝路海运”命名航线已达148条，通达48个国家和地区的150个港口。陆、海、天、网“四位一体”互联互通布局正加速完善。 传统领域合作提质升级的同时，新兴领域合作稳步拓展。 在巴基斯坦的乡村，人们用光伏板组装成太阳能发电和储能系统，不仅满足日常需求，还能用来灌溉。
六 | 巴基斯坦居民 阿西夫·尼萨尔：这套太阳能板是我结婚时收到的礼物，足够支持日常用电，我们全家都很开心。 前7个月，我国对共建“一带一路”国家的“新三样”产品出口规模达4822.4亿元，同比增长59.8%。 绿色合作破解能源难题，数字技术则打开创新发展新空间。 在马来西亚，传统的橡胶工厂用上中国的AI算法和工业机器人，生产成本降低30%。
七 | 在捷克，中国电视制造企业通过智能供应链管理平台，带动当地30余个供应商共同参与研发、加快产品迭代，供应商制造能力显著提升。
八 | 欧洲电视制造供应商 法比安·哈默施米德：这个智能平台让我们的合作更加紧密，我们不再仅仅是一个供应商，而是深度融入了整个产业链，与中国企业共同发展。 今年夏天，大批来自东盟的进口榴莲，以更实惠的价格端上中国百姓餐桌。不只是榴莲，从古巴的天然蜂蜜、肯尼亚的鲜切玫瑰，到土耳其的手工地毯，越来越多共建国家的优质商品正沿着“一带一路”打开中国市场，共享中国发展机遇。前7个月，我国对共建“一带一路”国家商品进口总额同比增长16.9%，高于出口增速2.3个百分点。
九 | 坚持共商共建共享，中国与共建国家一道，不断拓展合作领域、创新合作模式，正在为共建“一带一路”高质量发展注入更多动力，为共建国家人民带来更加美好的生活。【编辑:王琴】。
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