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$5,000 grew into a forest: American donor returns to China to reunite with desert reclamation partner_我的网站

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    A group photo from the 1999 donation ceremony, where Ronald Sakolsky presents $5,000 for afforestation efforts. Photo: Courtesy of Luoyang No.2 Foreign Language School
At 2:48 am on early Sunday morning, after a flight of more than 10 hours, Ronald Sakolsky arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport. As he stepped into the arrivals hall, he greeted the waiting reporters with earnest Putonghua "Wo hui lai le," meaning "I'm back."
The thrill of his homecoming had washed over him most vividly during the final moments of his flight. "When I saw the lights in Beijing as we were landing is when I realized that I am back in my second home."
Sakolsky, an American retired teacher from Pennsylvania, is visiting China from Sunday to September 1 for a journey that will take him to Beijing, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Central China's Henan Province. It is a reunion nearly three decades in the making.
That reunion began with a single act of generosity. In 1999, when Sakolsky arrived in China as a participant in a bilateral teacher exchange program, he was moved by Yin Yuzhen and her husband's tireless efforts to curb desertification in the Mu Us Desert in Inner Mongolia. He raised $5,000 to fund their local tree-planting initiative. The young saplings bought with the donation have since matured into more than 50,000 full-grown trees, transforming the once desolate, sandy wasteland into a thriving green landscape.
After decades of lost contact, Yin, a national model worker renowned for her desert restoration achievements, launched an online search for her American benefactor in May, hoping to reconnect with the man who helped launch her lifelong desert reclamation mission.
What followed was a remarkable wave of online support: within less than 48 hours, a nationwide search had tracked Sakolsky down. That swift effort led to their long-awaited virtual reunion, a video call that brought them face to face for the first time in 27 years.
Asked what he is most looking forward to about this journey, Sakolsky told the Global Times that "I want to see Ms Yin, see the forests, see the students I have not seen for almost 30 years, my colleagues. I want to see the Chinese people." 
The trip itself felt like a dream he never thought would come true, he added. 
Now, the dream is about to come true. Later on Sunday, Sakolsky will fly to Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the site of the transformative environmental project that bound his fate with Yin's all those years ago.
During his China visit, Sakolsky will join Yin in a new tree-planting activity. He will also hold exchanges and discussions with teachers and students from the Luoyang No.2 Foreign Language School where he once taught, and participate in official China-US teacher exchange events, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 
As he prepares to see the transformed landscape with his own eyes, Sakolsky shared with the Global Times about how much China itself has changed over the past two decades. From photographs, he said, he had already seen the barren desert he remembered turn into lush green forests; he had also heard that Luoyang has become far more vibrant and beautiful.  
"Hopefully the message gets out to the world that Chinese and Americans can work together and make a peaceful world," he said.
。    位于武吉巴督的本地首个社区关爱组屋项目Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok即将竣工。（图：Facebook/许连碹）位于武吉巴督的本地首个社区关爱组屋项目即将竣工。这个毗邻武吉巴督西6道和9道的Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok组屋高达15层，共有169个单位，于2021年2月推出，是本地首批社区关爱组屋。组屋项目原定今年第二季竣工，但由于工程进步不理想，建屋发展局早前终止主要承包商的合同，使竣工日期推迟三至四个月。永续发展与环境部兼交通部高级政务部长许连碹昨天（28日）走访了Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok后，在Facebook贴文说，组屋底层将设有一座拥有400多个座位的小贩中心。这也将是有关地区的首个小贩中心。许连碹说，社区关爱组屋竣工后，将成为本地首个为年长居民提供24小时紧急呼叫服务的组屋，同时也会有负责人为年长者组织社区活动。

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