Retired American teacher Ronald Sakolsky returns to Ordos, China, after 26 years to reunite with desertification fighter Yin Yuzhen. They will plant trees together in the Mu Us Desert, where 4,667 hectares have turned green.
Tags:Source: OT-Team(G), 中国新闻社, 环球时报
After more than 30 hours of flights and transfers, retired American teacher Ronald Sakolsky arrived at Yijinhuoluo International Airport in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, on August 23.
Waiting for him at the arrivals area was Yin Yuzhen, the renowned desertification-control pioneer he had not seen in 26 years.
Long before Sakolsky’s flight touched down, Yin was already standing by the exit, watching closely for her old friend.
She had tied her long hair into a neat braid and deliberately chosen a bright green jacket.
“I want to show him that the desert we knew back then is now full of green,” Yin said with a smile. “Helping the desert become greener has always been a shared dream of ours.”
Then Sakolsky finally appeared.
Yin immediately walked toward him. The two embraced, both in tears.
It was a moment they had waited 26 years for.
“More than 20 years ago, we were just friends who happened to meet. Now we are like brother and sister,” Sakolsky said through tears. “I want to thank her for everything she has done for the environment.”
Beside him, Yin was already too emotional to speak.
A Reunion 26 Years in the Making
The two first met in the late 1990s, when Sakolsky came to China as an American teacher and learned about Yin’s decades-long efforts to plant trees and combat desertification in the Mu Us Desert.
Moved by her story, he helped raise $5,000 to support her tree-planting work and later visited the desert himself.
They remained in touch for years, but eventually lost contact.
This year, Yin began searching for Sakolsky online. In May, she finally found him and invited him back to China.
That invitation became a long-awaited “green reunion.”
For Yin, preparing for his return was almost as meaningful as the reunion itself.
She spent more than two months getting ready, even inviting relatives to help prepare everything at home. She wanted to give her old friend the warmest welcome possible.
Among the gifts she prepared were about 5 kilograms of mooncakes with rose and mixed-nut fillings, symbolizing reunion and happiness.
She also made a pair of embroidered insoles by hand — a recreation of a pair she had sewn for Sakolsky when he left China in 2000.
Another gift was a cross-stitch showing green leaves and white doves surrounding the Earth, with the words: “One Earth, One Dream.”
Yin even began learning English so she could speak directly to Sakolsky when they met.
She practiced words such as “brother,” “thanks” and “miss.”
“I can now say three things in English,” she joked before the reunion. “The first is ‘Welcome to China.’ The second is ‘brother.’ And the third is ‘more, more.’”
She planned to say the first two at the airport and save “more, more” for home, where she wanted to make sure her old friend ate plenty of food grown in the desert.
But when the long-awaited moment finally came, she was so overcome with emotion that she could not say any of them.
“I’m Back. This Is My Second Home.”
Sakolsky was just as excited about returning to China.
He left Washington Dulles International Airport on the evening of August 21, U.S. Eastern Time, beginning a 10-day trip to China.
“As the moment of our meeting gets closer, I feel both excited and nervous. It almost feels like a dream,” he said before departure. “The closer I get to China, the stronger the butterflies in my stomach become.”
At 2:48 a.m. Beijing time on August 23, he arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport.
As soon as he appeared, he smiled at the cameras and repeatedly said in somewhat hesitant Chinese:
“I’m back! This is my second home.”
Yin had prepared a video message for him in advance. She also sent handmade mooncakes and tomatoes grown in the desert, so that he could taste something from the place that had connected them decades ago.
Now, after 26 years apart, Sakolsky is finally returning to see the transformation for himself.
“I want to see the forest Yin planted with my own eyes,” he said.
He has seen countless photographs over the years, but he expects the experience of standing among the trees, touching them himself and planting another tree together with Yin to be completely different.
He is also looking forward to seeing former colleagues and students in China.
For more than two decades, he has kept in touch by email with some of the Chinese students he once taught. Many have continued to share updates about their lives and careers with him. Some are now parents themselves, and Sakolsky has even given English names to some of their children.
The Reunion Is Only the Beginning
The reunion in Ordos marks the beginning of the next chapter of their story.
Over the coming days, Sakolsky will travel to the Mu Us Desert, where he and Yin will plant trees together.
He will then head to Luoyang, Henan, where he once taught, to meet former colleagues and students.
For Yin, the reunion is a reminder of how far both the desert and their friendship have come.
After more than 40 years of work by Yin and countless others, about 70,000 mu of desert land — roughly 4,667 hectares — has been transformed into an oasis. The Mu Us Desert now has a desertification-control rate of about 85%.
But on August 23, the numbers and achievements seemed secondary.
At the airport, there were simply two old friends seeing each other again after 26 years.
“This friendship between me and Sakolsky, and the attention this story has received, comes from our shared love for the Earth and our shared dream of a greener world,” Yin said.
Sakolsky sees the story differently.
“Yin Yuzhen is the real protagonist of this story,” he said. “I hope people can see that no act of kindness is insignificant, and no act of kindness is ever wasted.”
“If you truly believe something is right, then do it,” he said. “I hope the younger generation can understand that the world has never been about ‘me.’ It is about ‘us.’”
After 26 years, they have finally met again.
And this time, they are not saying goodbye.
They are planting another tree together.