As the crucial management period for flowering and fruit setting of the 'Beyond the Great Wall Red' apple arrives, Wang Baoxia utilized her evening rest time on May 20 to host an agricultural technology public welfare livestream, offering online instruction to growers nationwide. On camera, she meticulously explained core management techniques for the fruit-setting stage—such as flower and fruit preservation, prevention of late spring frosts, water and fertilizer regulation, flower thinning for yield control, and pest prevention—tailored to the current growth cycle of the 'Beyond the Great Wall Red' apple, delivering practical field techniques for high yields directly to fruit growers.
On one side of the screen are growers eager for abundant harvests; on the other is a sincere dedication to serving the local community. In the footage, Wang Baoxia speaks plainly, her eyes filled with passion for the forestry and fruit industry. Having dedicated over thirty years to frontline research on fruit trees in cold regions, she has devoted herself to breeding and promotion. Through the self-developed 'Beyond the Great Wall Red' apple variety, she has transformed barren sandy lands into vast orchards, paving a dual-benefit path on the Horqin grasslands that enhances both ecological greenery and residents' income.
Eastern Inner Mongolia experiences severe, prolonged winters and short frost-free periods, with harsh climatic conditions restricting the growth and reproduction of fruit trees, leaving a long-standing gap in high-quality apple cultivation. "Seeing vast stretches of sandy land lying idle and people struggling to prosper, I pondered whether we could breed an apple variety capable of surviving and bearing quality fruit in cold regions," Wang recalled. In 1991, at age 24, immediately after graduating from Inner Mongolia Forestry College, she immersed herself in forestry and grassland research in Tongliao, where she has remained for a lifetime.
Breeding apples for cold regions was then considered an unyielding challenge. With no existing varieties for reference and lacking mature technical support, everything started from scratch. "Breeding is like 'panning for gold'—it cannot be rushed," Wang explained. Developing a superior variety requires at least over a decade, often several decades, demanding patience and dedicated research.
During those years, she led her team in long-term stays at experimental bases, braving summer heat to record tree growth data and inspect for pest risks, and enduring winter cold to assess cold resistance and conduct pruning maintenance. The team repeatedly performed cross-breeding and elite plant selection, advancing through continuous experimental reviews and learning from failures. Lights in the laboratory frequently burned late into the night, and footprints in the experimental fields marked every season from dawn to dusk.
Three decades of seasonal changes and the cyclical withering and regrowth of vegetation in the experimental fields finally yielded fruitful outcomes. Through relentless day-and-night efforts, Wang Baoxia's team successfully bred a new cold-region apple variety—'Beyond the Great Wall Red'. "This variety is cold-resistant and drought-tolerant, with crisp, sweet, juicy flesh and excellent taste. It has passed national forest tree variety certification and obtained Inner Mongolia's first international sustainable forest management certification for an apple category, making it our autonomous region's sole nationally certified superior apple variety," Wang stated proudly.
Achieving a breakthrough from nothing and establishing a benchmark from a void, the successful breeding of 'Beyond the Great Wall Red' filled the gap in self-developed apple varieties in Inner Mongolia and opened a door to prosperity for residents in sandy areas.
Breeding a superior variety was only the first step; ensuring growers could cultivate it well and increase their income was crucial. Addressing issues like outdated local planting techniques and uneven grower management skills, Wang took the lead in building a full-industry-chain technical system, tackling challenges from seedling propagation and cultivation management to pest control, scientific harvesting, and fresh-keeping storage and transportation.
To ensure scientific achievements truly benefit farmers, Wang innovated technology promotion methods. Offline, she traveled across all banners, counties, and districts of Tongliao and surrounding areas, demonstrating pruning techniques with shears in hand, crouching to explain scientific fertilization and pest control in plain, accessible language that growers could immediately understand and apply. Over the years, she has trained over 30,000 individuals. Online, she transformed into an "agricultural assistance host," focusing her camera on fruit trees and explaining key planting points in simple terms. Her livestreams have attracted over 15,000 cultivation practitioners, with followers spanning eight provinces and regions nationwide. In agricultural assistance communication groups, she provides timely answers, and her instructional videos are shared and saved by growers, becoming a portable "agricultural technology guide."
Wang Lianhe and his spouse from Xiguili Village, Dalin Town, Horqin District, began planting 'Beyond the Great Wall Red' apples in 2014. Through scientific management, their orchard entered high-yield periods early and achieves abundant harvests annually, with per-mu annual income consistently exceeding 10,000 yuan. Under her influence, the 'Beyond the Great Wall Red' industry has expanded significantly, with planting area across the region nearing 500,000 mu, generating over 1 billion yuan in sales revenue for forest farmers. Fresh fruits are exported overseas, transforming once-barren sandy lands into fragrant green industrial parks.
In 2024, a national apple industry system special conference was held in Tongliao City. The cultivation demonstration base established by Wang Baoxia has become a technical model for modern cultivation of specialty small apple varieties nationwide, garnering broad societal recognition.
Having devoted decades to frontline forestry and fruit research and promotion, Wang Baoxia has earned numerous honors. She has been recognized as an Outstanding Talent of the Autonomous Region and a National Most Beautiful Forestry and Grassland Science and Technology Promoter, and she receives the State Council Special Government Allowance. Facing accolades, she remarked, "The path of research has no endpoint, only new starting points." Today, she continues to shuttle between experimental fields and orchards daily, leading her team in further research and development of cold-region fruit trees to cultivate varieties that are higher quality, more labor-saving, and more water-efficient.
As years pass, her conviction remains steadfast. Using technology as her pen and sweat as her ink, Wang Baoxia has written an answer on the Horqin Sandy Land where green and prosperity thrive together. A small 'Beyond the Great Wall Red' apple has not only reddened branches and enriched people but also reflected the responsibility and dedication of forestry and grassland science and technology workers in the new era, rooted in the frontline and selflessly contributing.
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