Yi plants trees together with Xue Hongguo, secretary of the Youth League Committee of Hure Banner in the Tamin Chagan desert, in 2007. Yi's project was to spend 10 years planting 1.1 million trees across the area's 10,000 mu (667 hectares) of sandy soil -- equal to some 960 football fields. Local villagers were hired to plant trees and protect the saplings. After the trees have been growing for 20 years, they will donate them to the local villagers.