Volunteers earn 'green passports' by planting trees in yellow sand

Every morning, volunteers arrive at the base and check in through a mobile app called Volunteer Hub to participate in voluntary tree-planting. At the end of the day, they check out, and their eight hours of service are recorded in the app, accumulating points for their efforts.

To safeguard the rights and interests of volunteers, the Minqin government launched an initiative to spend volunteer service points like money. With a simple tap on their phones, volunteers can use their service points to enjoy preferential policies at tourist attractions, exchange them for cultural and creative products, or obtain street food coupons.

Since March, the base has attracted more than 41,000 volunteers from all over the country to Minqin's sandy expanse. To date, they have planted over 1.52 million saxaul and caragana trees, making a green promise in the yellow sands, according to the base's latest statistics.