# Great Wall growing on railroad tracks Shanghai to Beijing, May 2003

# Great Wall growing on railroad tracks Shanghai to Beijing, May 2003
In 2003, in the shadow of economic growth, desertification and yellow sand were becoming more serious in China, and even large coastal cities were troubled by their arrival in early spring. Against this backdrop, the "Association to Support Greening and Prevention of Desertification in China," a citizen's organization that promotes greening through Japan-China cooperation, was established on May 8, 2003, with a plan to create a tree-planting zone along the high-speed railroad line from Shanghai to Beijing. The goal is to create a "Green Great Wall of the 21st century. The idea was to build a belt of forests that would serve as windbreaks and soil stabilizers, in tandem with the development of transportation infrastructure. To ensure a stable supply of high-quality seedlings, we planned to build a seedling cultivation system capable of mass supply in China.
At the time, China was already implementing national programs such as the Sanbei Protective Forestry Project, which began in 1978, and the Retrograding Forestry Project around 1999, and there was a trend to design greening and disaster prevention together with transportation networks against a backdrop of accelerated urbanization and infrastructure investment. High-speed rail is a truly symbolic stage. A multi-layered vegetation strip along the alignment was deemed effective in reducing wind pressure from trains, blowing sand caused by road traffic turbulence, and the drying and erosion of cut slopes. The plan is based on a three-tiered mixture of tall trees, shrubs, and ground cover, with poplars and other fast-growing trees that can be easily propagated by cuttings as the main component, combined with shrubs and grasses. The key to securing seedlings is quantity and quality, and techniques such as mass production of seedlings from cuttings, root pot protection using contain
er seedlings, and mycorrhizal inoculation to improve the live-planting rate are essential. In fact, poplar was assumed to be the species to be supplied for the time being.
The environment by the railroad tracks is harsh in terms of drought and wind. Therefore, related technologies include: solid sand with straw grids, combined use of geotextiles and slope cover, planting hole design using water catchment hollows and water retention agents, distributed placement of drip irrigation and water storage tanks, lightweight fencing to prevent animal damage, and salt and alkali improvement of the soil. It is essential to synchronize the transportation and temporary placement of seedlings with the process of the railroad construction zone and to design the irrigation logistics for the live-planting period first. After creation, canopy management through pruning and row renewal will keep the downwind side thicker, and the soil will be tightened by renewing the subsoil cover in time for the blowing sand season. Such a conservation plan that is not "build it and forget it" will nurture a belt of ecological function along the long track.
This cooperation was also a citizen-led attempt to drive a wedge into a national issue. Greening also warms the economy along the line through employment, a nursery industry, and local procurement of materials. In this sense, the "Green Great Wall" was also a piece of social infrastructure that transcended borders, aiming to simultaneously improve the environment and revitalize the economy. In line with the policy outlined at the time of its inception, the concept became a reality through the establishment of a domestic mass production system for seedlings and the parallel support of other greening projects.
In short, the Great Wall of the 21st century will be piled with seedlings, not stones. Slow-growing forests will be placed alongside fast-moving trains. The design and operation of the project, undertaking the time difference between the two, was quietly beginning to move, supported by the transitional air of 2003.