It cost Lan Haijun, a native of Tongyu County, Jilin province, 18 million yuan ($2.6 million) and years of work to construct a forest to block sand storms outside his hometown.

Everything started with a bet in 2008.

An official in Lan's village told him that afforestation in the area was in vain because of the severe weather, which only fired him up to change the situation.

Since then, the 45-year-old northeastern man has worked hard to earn money to plant trees on the mountains around his hometown.

He signed a contract to work on 300,000 square meters' of land with 600,000 yuan in the first year, digging three wells, installing electric wires and hiring 50 people.

They planted 78,000 aspens but several days later more than half of them fell in a strong wind.

Such things happened many times during that year and other villagers even greeted Lan with one question -- going to lift up your trees again?

However, Lan did not give up; instead he became more obsessed with tree planting. By the end of that first year, the survival rate of the trees had grown to 95 percent.

Eight years ago Lan signed to work on about 666,666 square meters per year and since then has invested 18 million yuan, building three forests covering seven million square meters.

Lan also encouraged other people to join his afforestation team.

Today, more than 600 villagers are working with Lan and their homes are surrounded by thick trees, with birds tweeting in the spring and mushrooms scattered on the ground in autumn.

Lan says children under five in his village have no idea about sand storms.

The village official, now in his 80s, praises Lan for his contribution to the area every time they meet.