Li Yunsheng, the former director of a driving school who quit his job to come back to his hometown 20 years ago, is another example of Youyu's reforestation models. Working with other farmers, he has turned about 933 hectares of barren mountain into woods.

"The trees are proof of my work, and seeing them grow makes me happy," he said.

To date, Li and his wife have raised some 100 cows in the mountains.

When asked how planting trees became a county tradition, Zhao Xiangdong, who was county head and Party chief in Youyu from 2001 to 2006, said that at first it was out of the need to survive and later because farmers benefited from the transformation brought about by the trees, as a healthy natural environment attracts tourists, investment and projects.

"Reforestation has become a self-propelled undertaking that guarantees the sustainable development of the county," he said.

Youyu now exports lamb to the Middle East and grain to South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. Beverage and food companies have invested to produce juice and vegetable and grain products.

The county also receives around 4 million tourists and photographers from home and abroad each year.

Experts say the fundamental changes to Youyu testified to the vitality of the green economy and the potential of an ecological civilization long before these concepts were entrenched as national development strategies. In that regard, Youyu has definitely blazed a trail.