Three times the size of New York’s Central Park and created by villagers planting tens of thousands of saplings, Binhu National Forest Park is a testament to ingenuity and persistence.

The government of Hefei, Anhui province, oversaw turning abandoned farmland into a massive forest park, and the results have seen it become a popular tourist spot.

The park, with more than 95 percent of the trees being poplars, is a man-made forest in the city, and the only pure man-made one among the country’s hundreds of national forest parks.

Binhu National Forest Park, which extends nearly 11 square kilometers, is located on the northeastern bank of Chaohu Lake, south of Hefei. In summer, thousands of locals visit the park every day to enjoy the fresh air and cool forest surrounds.