This is a story about a special era. This is a legend about humans transforming and utilizing nature. This is an epic about the foresters of the older generation, dedicating their youth and life to the Saihanba desert in the northern plateau of China.

In the early 1960s, in order to reduce the risk from sandstorms in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the state assigned the State Forestry and Grassland Administration and the Hebei Province to establish mechanical forest farms on the barren desert of Saihanba in Chengde city, to stall the southward advances of the Hunshandake and Horqin desert. The first generation foresters, Feng Cheng and Tam Xuemei, lead a total of 369 people from 18 provinces and municipalities, comprising of forestry colleges’ graduates and employees of the forestry administration, in a fight to reduce the risk of sandstorms.

Unexpectedly, the mechanical forestry plan falls through due to the nasty site condition and they have to cultivate plantation manually. At an average of 1500 metres above sea level, and a minimum temperature of minus 43 degrees Celsius during the coldest period, the foresters fight in the extreme cold and in the nasty heat, exchange their youth, and shed their blood to create “the world’s largest man-made forest farm,” constructing an ecological defence and protecting the blue sky of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei for half a century. At the desolated Saihanba desert, Feng Cheng and his partners work hand-in-hand, endure adversities together, and forge friendships and romantic relationships; creating a magnificent and poetic life story for themselves.