Liao Lichun, a 50-year-old former entrepreneur earned the title of "the king of spade" because he has devoted himself to the cause of environmental protection for almost over a decade in Northwest China.

Since May 1, 2011, he and his fellows have been keeping planting trees with the help of 36 volunteers on weekends from April to November every year.

Liao believes his new work is vital for environmental protection. Recent years have witnessed increasingly severe sandstorms occurred in Beijing and its neighboring areas. Most of these sandstorms comprising cold air arises from Inner Mongolia autonomous region and attacks the areas all their way heading to the south in China. The deteriorating air quality has prompted many in the country, especially in Beijing to call for a healthy living environment.

With his personal investments, Liao has set up two green bases, of which is the 66.67-hectare-large green basin in Inner Mongolia and the other, up to 666.67 hectares situated in Zhangbei county, Central China's Hebei province. So he has managed to motivate thousands of volunteers to plant trees in those places.

Liao Lichun, a 50-year-old former entrepreneur, has managed to motivate thousands of volunteers to plant trees in desserts.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

New career

Liao used to be a successful businessman and had established his own company in 1993, when he was just in his 20s. His company later went on to become one of China's top suppliers of peripheral products in computer industry. He was also highly praised by Liu Chuanzhi, founder of Lenovo Group, for his talent in doing business. Liao in his early 20s was appointed the general manager of Lenovo Guangzhou branch, South China's Guangdong province.

In 2004, Liao participated in a volunteer activity organized by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Japanese Ethics Research Center, an organization mainly focusing on activities in education, publishing and environmental protection among others.

During the activity, Liao and other participants were asked to plant trees by themselves in EnGeBei green base, an ecological demonstration area built by the Japanese in China. It was that experience that changed his career from then on. "I think we should be responsible for our own land. Planting trees in desserts is not only an opportunity to forge perseverance but a more patriotic education too. We should build green base on our own," he said.

Later, Liao voluntarily organized his friends and family members to plant trees in the desserts as a yearly ritual. He believed that making money is not the most important thing in his life and would like to do something that others are unable to do. His energy gradually runs in environmental protection apart from managing his company.

In 2010, Liao invested 10 million yuan ($ 1.57 million) from his own assets to build a green base at Hunshandake Sandy Land in Inner Mongolia, 108 kilometers away from Beijing.

The king of spade

In 2012, Liao officially resigned from the chairman position in his company and indulged himself into environmental protection and public welfare works. In 2013, he invested another 10 million yuan to build his second green base in Zhangbei county, 230 kilometers away from Beijing.

Having been encouraged by the hardworking and carefulness of the Japanese co-workers during his first voluntary tree-planting activity, he taught himself the tree-planting skills only to master the skill later. He is so concerned about the survival rate of the trees that he is very strict with the other volunteers when they are working.

"Planting trees in desserts is not an easy task. You should dig one meter deep enough under the ground to see the soil and then begin to plant. Also, the buds should be put down deep into the earth or the trees will not survive." Liao claimed.

So far, he and his fellows have successfully cultivated and planted nearly millions of saplings and trees, which got him crowned as "the king of spade". Liao is also mulling on the idea of building the third green base at Qaidam Basin in Northwest China's Qinghai province, which is expected to be the tallest, safest and biggest one compared to the former two.

From entrepreneur to preacher

The green base in Hunshandake almost dried up Liao's investments. Many of the volunteers wanted to raise funds for it but were refused by him. Liao explained he did not want to make it complicated because "all the volunteers are more like my friends fighting shoulder to shoulder against the difficulties in our work, relays of our voluntary will running and mediators of our positive energy to society". So he did not want to trouble them with financial problems.

After giving up his fortune, Liao leads a regular life that clears more room for him to consider life value. He writes books during the work days and manages volunteers to plant trees in desserts on weekends. His move surprised a lot of people and even some of his family members cannot understand his newly-found passion. But Liao just smiled and said he was born with a literature nature so he never regretted getting out of the business circle.

Liao always tries to improve himself and keeps reading in many subjects as philosophy, history, education and even medical science and military strategies and tactics. Since the publishing of his first book in 2005, he has successfully published nine books, all of which are inspiring and thought-provoking to lead a meaningful life.

"What I should do, together with my volunteers, is to evoke the will of voluntary and nurture more unselfishness and kindness for Chinese people. We do hope our efforts can enrich everyone's inner world and create a better future for our offspring," the king of spade concluded.