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Over the last few decades, nearly 800 million hectares of farmland have been severely degraded by desertification. Many people including the government have not stopped their efforts in trying to reverse this trend.

Good news at the end of 2009 is China has reached its goal of 20 percent of coverage of the country's land by forest. It comes two years ahead of the schedule.

This happened thanks to the world's largest campaign of forestation in the last thirty years, with more than fifty billion trees being planted.

Wang Youde is one of the people choosing to stay near the desert at Ningxia Hui Autonomous region, and trying to push back the sand by planting bushes in the sands.

This is something he has been doing for more than 20 years.

Many of his fellow villagers left to find jobs in the cities. But Wang says he will stay until the desert no longer expands to threaten his offspring.

Wang Youde, a farmer in Ningxia Autonomous Region, said, "Right now we are trying to contain the desertification here..."

However, the desert is hardly willing to retreat.

Presently, hundreds of cities still face the threat of being surrounded by sand, let alone the countryside, especially in the north and the west, where the dry climate is one of the major challenges to foresting the desert.