千山暮雪
American teacher takes jar of sand as symbol of shared ground in forest he helped grow in China_我的网站
一 |
On Monday afternoon, Ronald Sakolsky, an American teacher, set foot once again on the soil of the Mu Us Desert, in the Uxin Banner of Ordos, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He first came here in 2000. Back then, the land was little more than drifting sand. Today, it is green with trees – a transformation driven by decades of local effort.
He stood within Sakolsky Forest, a woodland formally named to honor his early donation toward local ecological restoration. There, he carried out a plan he had held long before this trip: filling a jar with sand from the desert to bring home to the US.
More than two decades ago, sand was the one thing this place had in abundance. In 1999, when Sakolsky arrived in China as a participant in a bilateral teacher exchange program, he was moved by the tireless efforts of Chinese desert fighter Yin Yuzhen and her husband to curb desertification in the Mu Us Desert. He raised $5,000 – equivalent in 1999 to three years of income for Yin’s entire family – to fund their local tree-planting initiative.
The young saplings bought with that donation have since matured into more than 50,000 full-grown trees, transforming the once desolate, sandy wasteland into a thriving green landscape.
When Sakolsky met Yin at the airport on Sunday, 26 years after his first visit to Inner Mongolia, he joked that he could not take a tree from the Mu Us Desert, but he could slip some sand into his shoes and carry a piece of the land back with him. Now, he had found exactly the sand he wanted – not just any sand, but from a place where persistence had turned desert into life, and where his own name had become part of that story.
“Promise is a promise,” he said. “Ms. Yin made a promise, and she fulfilled it.”
For Sakolsky, the sand is not just dirt. It is a metaphor, a bridge, a shared ground. He plans to tell his grandchildren what it means. “It’s not just a piece of sand in the jar,” he said. “It’s a jar of love.”
He used the jar of sand to symbolize that America and China share a relationship rooted in the same soil. He shook the jar, holding its two ends as if they were the two countries, and said that it shows we’re all on the same planet.
There is an old American joke, he noted, that if you dig a hole deep enough, you will eventually reach China. “We’re all on the same planet,” he said.
Earlier that day, while visiting Yin’s home, he spoke about the need for Americans and Chinese to see each other as family. “All Americans should understand that Chinese people and Americans can be family,” he said. “We can transcend differences if we focus on our common ground. We all love our countries, and we all value loyalty and respect – these are the shared virtues we hold dear.”
As for the sand he collected, Sakolsky said he would treat it as a treasure, alongside all his other precious keepsakes from China. He expects to display it in his living room – a daily reminder of the forest that carries his name and the people who made it grow.
。 来源：【安徽财经网】安徽财经网讯：11月15日-17日，“驾游安徽 绿色新里程”2024安徽自驾游大会在安庆市岳西县举办。本次大会由安徽省文化和旅游厅、安徽省汽车办、安庆市人民政府联合主办。2014年起，安徽自驾游大会已成功举办十一届，始终致力于“以营销推广推动产业发展”，坚持赋能重大项目、联动区域发展、助力乡村振兴，“驾游安徽”已成为安徽文旅重要特色品牌，为长三角乃至全国各地自驾游大会活动提供了示范样板。
二 | 据悉，今年，“驾游安徽”品牌迈入新十年，本次大会立足文旅融合、创新发展，展现“三新”特色：主动抓住新能源汽车首位产业风口，大力推动自驾游风景道沿线持续完善补能网络和基础设施建设，将多彩风景与“绿色里程”完美融合，为“驾游安徽”品牌注入新动能;创新推行“驾游安徽合伙人”计划，与上海铁路局联合推出高铁落地自驾产品;联合省汽车办，邀请省内多家新能源车企，推出汽车文创市集，以展促销;全面梳理省内各市驾游新场景，线上发起榜单评选，请广大车友用“方向盘”投票，以市场逻辑重新定义“驾游安徽”品牌体验。大会发布了“驾游安徽 绿色新里程”主题视频、“驾游安徽×新能源”体验场景榜单、大黄山自驾新玩法，为上铁文旅传媒集团、支付宝、捷途汽车、蔚来汽车等13家“驾游安徽合伙人”颁发证书，开展“驾游安徽合伙人”分享、长三角客源互送签约。据了解，“驾游安徽×新能源”体验场景榜单中首批十个较为适合新能源汽车路试的场景分别是：黄山市徽州天路(蜈蚣岭)、黄山市黄山世界遗产风景道(汤口-东黄山段)、宣城市皖南川藏线(桃岭六道弯)、池州市石台天路(七井山段)、安庆市天妙公路、合肥市庐南川藏线(双顶山)、芜湖市红杨山汽车体育公园、六安市中国红岭公路(马丁公路)、淮北市龙脊天路、马鞍山市六衖石头部落(草原天路段)。十个个特别“出片”的新能源汽车宣传片拍摄场地分别是：黄山市太平湖、宣城市储家滩、池州市平天湖、安庆市牛草山、滁州市黄寨草场、合肥市红石咀公园、蚌埠市龙子湖风景区(湖上升明月)、淮南市寿州古城(宾阳门)、阜阳市颍州西湖、宿州市砀山梨园。
三 | 适合车企组织自驾车友体验活动的场地榜单则包括：黄山市西溪南、黄山市漫溪里生态旅游度假区、宣城市桃花潭旅游度假区、池州市东九华旅游度假区、安庆市天悦湾旅游度假区、芜湖市途居马仁山露营地、铜陵市永泉小镇、滁州市静港营地、六安市陡沙河温泉旅游度假区亳州市亳州望月潭营地。大会创新举办潮玩市集，露营风新能源车展、原创村咖、文创精品、3C产品、趣味游戏、汉服游园，让人目不暇接、流连忘返。15日下午，举办“驾游安徽”产业赋能对接会。来自上海、江苏、浙江、北京等16个省市的自驾游协会、俱乐部、周边企业和车企代表，与安徽省内各市文旅企业代表参会，台上抢麦推介，台下洽谈交流，全方位助力安徽自驾游产业发展。会后还组织了踩线活动，邀请重点客源城市自驾游渠道商、媒体达人代表，实地探访“岳西云路”风景道，进一步助推“引客入皖”。(记者 祝亮 李小凡/文图)本文来自【安徽财经网】，仅代表作者观点。全国党媒信息公共平台提供信息发布传播服务。
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Published on:03:26:47