Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shot of trees, desert

USA - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ronald Sakolsky, U.S. teacher (partially overlaid with shots 3-4):
"A reporter from CCTV was doing a story on heroes of China, and every day she would show a different hero. On this one day, she was showing Ms. Yin and her husband and how they were planting trees in the desert. They only made 250 U.S. dollars a year, and they spent all their money to plant trees in the desert in China to cut down on the sand getting into the wind. I could not believe this. This was amazing to me that she loved the motherland so much, that she was willing to give every penny or every yuan that she had to making China beautiful."

FILE: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
3. Various of footages showing Chinese woman Yin Yuzhen fighting desertification
4. Various of photos showing Yin, her husband fighting desertification
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Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Various of trees

USA - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ronald Sakolsky, U.S. teacher (partially overlaid with shots 7-8):
"I was crying as I watched the news. I saw her on the TV and I said I want to help her. Finally an organization in Boston, Massachusetts said that they would give me 5,000 dollars. When Ms. Yin only made 250 dollars a year, 5,000 dollars in 1999 was 20 years of income. So we flew to Hohhot."

++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Various of trees, desert

FILE: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Various of photos showing Yin, Sakolsky
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
9. Memorial stone showing donations from Sakolsky

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
10. Various of trees

USA - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ronald Sakolsky, U.S. teacher (starting with shot 10/ending with shot 12):
"If a simple world history teacher from America can somehow find a simple Chinese woman in the desert of China in Inner Mongolia, and somehow someway work together to create this forest. The world can find a way to work together. This is a miracle."

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Various of trees

Nearly three decades after helping fight desertification in north China, U.S. teacher Ronald Sakolsky is looking back on the unlikely friendship he formed with Yin Yuzhen, a woman who devoted her life to planting trees in the Maowusu sands.

Their story, rekindled through a video, has become a vivid reminder of grasssroots goodwill between China and the United States.

That video featured Yin Yuzhen, a national model worker rooted in the Maowusu, the fourth‑largest sandy area in China. It went viral on social media as she turned to the internet to search for a U.S. benefactor from more than 20 years ago, who had raised 5,000 U.S. dollars to help her and her husband plant trees and fight desertification.

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Sakolsky recalled how, as a U.S. teacher in China at the time, he first saw Yin’s story on television and was deeply moved.

"A reporter from CCTV was doing a story on heroes of China, and every day she would show a different hero. On this one day, she was showing Ms. Yin and her husband and how they were planting trees in the desert. They only made 250 U.S. dollars a year, and they spent all their money to plant trees in the desert in China to cut down on the sand getting into the wind. I could not believe this. This was amazing to me that she loved the motherland so much, that she was willing to give every penny or every yuan that she had to making China beautiful," said Sakolsky.

"I was crying as I watched the news. I saw her on the TV and I said I want to help her. Finally an organization in Boston, Massachusetts said that they would give me 5,000 dollars. When Ms. Yin only made 250 dollars a year, 5,000 dollars in 1999 was 20 years of income. So we flew to Hohhot," he said.

What began as a 5,000‑dollar donation has now grown into a forest of more than 50,000 trees. Looking back on this two‑decade bond, Sakolsky shared what the experience has come to mean for him.

"If a simple world history teacher from America can somehow find a simple Chinese woman in the desert of China in Inner Mongolia, and somehow someway work together to create this forest. The world can find a way to work together. This is a miracle," he said.

At a press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described the story between Yin and Sakolsky as a vivid example of people-to-people friendship between China and the United States.

Mao noted that the story of China-U.S. relations is written by the people. She also expressed confidence that the two peoples will keep adding new chapters of goodwill, and breathing new life into the China-U.S. relationship.