BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Fewer scenes of volunteers watering trees side-by-side were seen during this year's Arbor Day. Still, provincial-level regions across China are maintaining their tree-planting momentum amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Photo: CGTN

"Tree planting started relatively late this year, so we have to hurry up and make up for the lost time," said Hu Jinping, who heads a forestry cooperative in Jing'an County, east China's Jiangxi Province.

Hu said hard work is needed after the outbreak forced the cooperative to postpone its afforestation work, originally scheduled to start on Feb. 1, by more than a week.

The forestry bureau of Jing'an County said they planned to plant 133 hectares of trees this year. So far, 90 percent of the goal has been achieved.

"We recruited migrant workers who could not return to the cities where they have worked (due to traffic restrictions imposed during the outbreak), which not only sped up the afforestation but also helped them increase income," said Hu Qingguo, deputy director of the bureau.

Strict quarantine rules were still in place in many parts of the country as the 42nd National Tree Planting Day falls on Thursday, but Internet-based innovations and growing environmental awareness have helped keep the tree-planting tradition alive and well.

In southwest China's Chongqing, volunteers were instructed to keep "a safe distance" with each other when planting trees.

The municipality said by the end of February, 63 of 99 local leading forest enterprises had resumed work, and thanks to the growing ecological awareness among the public, over 220,000 locals have so far joined this year's initiative to have planted 890,000 trees.

For public-spirited residents who could not personally join the afforestation efforts due to quarantine requirements, Internet-based innovations have offered them a new option this year.

"I participated in cloud planting, as it is difficult to go out to plant trees during the period of epidemic prevention," said Bu Jianqiang, who just "planted" a tree on the Ant Forest project.

Powered by mobile payment app Alipay, the project rewards low-carbon acts such as renting a bike or taking the bus with "energy" to "water" virtual trees, and the organizers promise to plant a real tree when a virtual tree grows up.

"My red willow has already been planted in Bayannur (in Inner Mongolia). I have the tree's number, and I hope one day I can go there to see it. For now, I can view the forest through the camera as if I were a ranger," said Bu, a resident in northeast China's Harbin.

More than 500 million people had participated in the project to plant 122 million real trees by the end of 2019, according to the China Green Foundation.

Before this year's Arbor Day, China's forestry and grassland authority said the country had maintained its efforts to promote greening despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

 As of Tuesday, China had planted about 874,000 hectares of trees, fulfilling 12.9 percent of the annual afforestation target, down 2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Despite the limited impact of the coronavirus outbreak, the administration said arduous tasks still lie ahead as China works to deliver on its promise to afforest 6.7 million hectares this year.

Under a long-term afforestation plan, China plans to increase its forest coverage rate to 23.04 percent by 2020, and to 26 percent by 2035, as part of the plan to build a Beautiful China.