Olena Soloviova, an international PhD student in the College of Soil Sciences at Shenyang Agricultural University in Liaoning province, hopes to find ways to combat desertification in China.

Soloviova comes from Ukraine, which has suffered soil loss as a result of over-farming in recent years.

Liaoning's Zhangwu county began scientific studies of ways to fight desertification in the early 1950s. And the desert in many places has been transformed into forests and fertile fields after 70 years of effort.

Liu Caiqun contributed to this story.