The windswept ridges and landforms of the Loess Plateau in northern China's Gansu, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces have undergone a two-decade transformation of reforestation, and the local people have been the beneficiaries, not just the environment.

In the village of Nangou in Wuqi county, Shaanxi province, Yan Zhixiong recalled his childhood when all the surrounding mountains were bare of plant life.

To tackle the environmental issue of over-farming and erosion, the government decided in the 1990s to launch a long-term campaign aimed at making the Loess Plateau green again. The campaign's aim was to return farmland to forest.

"When I was young, if the wind picked up, yellow sand was swept into the sky. The mountains were barren. If it rained, mud flows filled the valleys," 57-year-old Yan said.

The 20-year campaign has not only given us green mountains, but has brought solid incomes to the locals too, he said.

In 1999, villagers in Nangou joined the campaign and began returning their grazing land to forest, earning money from the government the more trees they planted.

The government also provided subsidies for grain, corn, buckwheat and millet and an additional 160 yuan ($22) per 0.067 hectare of land that was converted to forest.

The forest coverage rate in Wuqi county has increased from 8.4 percent in 1997 to 20.3 percent today.

In 2018, Bai Tao returned to Nangou and was elected the village's Party chief.

Seeing the potential in mountain and water resources, he decided to develop rural tourism in the village.

In the same year, Bai set up a tourism company. The initial investment of more than 12 million yuan came from an agriculture-related fund with villagers also pitching in their own money.

The locals got behind Bai and began to open homestays, operate shuttle buses for tourists and develop agritourism around apple orchards.

College graduate Liu Hu returned to his hometown to operate an apple orchard in 2017.

"The environment in and around the village is getting better each year, which has given many the confidence to start their own businesses," he said.

In recent years, beekeeping has become another popular agritourism business attracting visitors.

Last year, the per capita income in Nangou was more than 17,000 yuan, up from 660 yuan in 1996.

Kang Ruoming contributed to this story.