Soldiers from Beijing Military Area of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) planted trees on Saturday in Beijing's neighboring Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in a bid to improve the air quality ahead of the Olympics.

More than 10,000 soldiers planted trees in Shangdu county, a major source of sandstorms for Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in the cities of Hohhot, Erdos and Baotou.

A total of 520,000 trees will be planted by them this year.

Frequent sandstorms are among the major concerns of Beijing government, which is engaged in improving air quality for the upcoming Olympics.

Beijing and neighboring provinces, including Inner Mongolia and Hebei, have been making great efforts in recent years to improve the air quality and change the deteriorating ecological situation, which is seen as a main cause of the sandstorms.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2008)