In October, walking into Xibaihua Town in Horqin Left Middle Banner, there is no need to ask for directions; just follow the scent of fruit. In the vast planting base, red 'Saiwaihong' apples hang heavy on the branches, and the picking season has begun. Villagers head into the orchards with the fruit growers at dawn, picking, sorting, and packing, with baskets of bright 'Saiwaihong' apples piled like small hills.

These apples are not only beautiful but also unmatched in taste—thin skin, crisp flesh, and full of juice, sweet to the heart with every bite. At the Xibaihua Town base, the 'Saiwaihong' apple harvest is in full swing (Photo by Li Xuejian). Baskets of fresh fruit are transported from the fields and loaded onto refrigerated trucks waiting by the roadside. An Fengchun, head of Tongliao Shengqin Fruit Industry Co., Ltd., is busy on her feet. Pointing to a freshly loaded truck, she says: 'Today's buyers come from Sichuan and Yingkou, and prices vary. It depends on the fruit, quality, and also the skin and size. Prices range from one yuan to two yuan and seven jiao.'

Plump, bright red fresh apples can reach a sugar content of 17%-22% (Photo by Li Xuejian). Ten years ago, this orchard looked completely different. On the sand dunes ravaged by wind and sand, nothing could grow. After a strong wind, the newly sown seeds would disappear. Local officials explain that over the years, they have continuously optimized the planting structure, converting low-yield corn fields and degraded sandy forest land into efficient economic forests acre by acre. Using the 'Party branch + cooperative + farmers' model, they have led villagers to develop together and scale up planting. As the city's core production area for 'Saiwaihong' apples, Xibaihua Town now has a planting area of 31,200 mu, with contiguous standardized orchards attracting more and more out-of-town buyers.

Boxes of neatly stacked fresh fruit are ready for shipment. Hu Jiayong, a buyer from Sichuan, has been purchasing apples in Tongliao for several years. Holding a 'Saiwaihong' apple, he examines it and says: 'Relatively speaking, the taste, color, and luster of the fruit here are the best. The sweetness and skin color are also good, the skin is thin, and most importantly, the fruit has a very high melting rate—basically no residue. We can collect 30,000 to 40,000 jin a day.' As he speaks, refrigerated trucks full of fresh fruit head straight for Shenzhen Port, then cross the ocean to enter supermarkets in Malaysia, Singapore, and other places. Out-of-town buyers are grading and sorting 'Saiwaihong' apples (Photo by Bao Zhibin).

The booming fruit sales directly benefit surrounding villagers. An Fengchun calculated for reporters: 'There are more than 30 people picking in the orchard, and over 50 people outside in the yard sorting and packing. Male workers earn 170 yuan a day, female workers 150 yuan, and they can work continuously for a month.' Earning money at their doorstep while caring for the elderly and children, villagers inside and outside the orchard work enthusiastically, and their lives keep improving. The forest fruit economy directly drives surrounding villagers to find employment and increase income at their doorstep (Photo by Bao Zhibin).

'The changes in the town over these years are real. Under the strong push of Party building leading continuous sand control and afforestation, the town's ecological landscape has undergone a historic transformation. The regional forest coverage rate has increased from 48.1% to 66%, and the sand control coverage rate has reached 54%, completely reversing the passive situation of land desertification and wind-sand hazards, greatly improving the living environment and ecological foundation of villages, and truly achieving a win-win of Party building red leading ecological green, and yellow sand land transforming into wealth-generating fields,' says Ji Kexin, Deputy Party Secretary and Town Mayor of Xibaihua Town.

The city's over 340,000 mu of 'Saiwaihong' apples have an annual output value exceeding 600 million yuan (Provided by Horqin Left Middle Banner Media Center). 'Saiwaihong' apple is a local variety bred by the Tongliao Forestry and Grassland Science Research Institute over more than 20 years. It is cold-resistant, storage-friendly, crisp and sweet, with a sugar content of 17% to 22%. From less than 100 mu when promotion began in 2012 to large-scale planting across Horqin District, Kailu County, Naiman Banner, Horqin Left Middle Banner, and other places, the city's 'Saiwaihong' apple cultivation area has reached over 340,000 mu, including over 100,000 mu in full fruit period, with an annual fresh fruit output of about 80,000 tons and an annual output value exceeding 600 million yuan.

As the industry grows, scientific and technological support is also advancing. 'At present, we are promoting simplified and efficient apple cultivation techniques across the city on a large scale. At the same time, relying on the National Apple Industry Technology System and the National Apple Engineering Technology Center, we are carrying out new variety creation work, continuously breeding diversified follow-up varieties that are more cold-resistant, more storage-friendly, easier to manage, and of better quality. Next, we will continue to promote the coordinated implementation of good varieties and good methods, pushing Tongliao's 'Saiwaihong' and other specialty apples from area and scale advantages to quality and brand advantages, and striving to build a national benchmark for cold-region apple planting,' introduces Bao Aomin, Deputy Director of the Economic Forest Research Office of the Tongliao Forestry and Grassland Science Research Institute.

Relying on unique sandy land resources and continuous ecological management, Tongliao has been expanding and improving its cold-region specialty forest fruit industry according to local conditions. In recent years, the city's fruit-type economic forest area, mainly 'Saiwaihong' apples, grapes, and crabapples, has reached 400,000 mu, and the wild apricot forest exceeds 3.2 million mu. The forest fruit economy rooted in sandy land not only enriches farmers but also effectively builds a 'green barrier' for Horqin sandy land management, achieving a win-win of ecological greening and people's income growth.