Working alongside students, Xi shoveled soil and emptied water buckets before planting seven trees in a forest park in the capital's Tongzhou district.

He underscored the importance of giving play to China's honored tradition of loving, planting and protecting trees to ensure that national forestation programs yield concrete results continuously.

He noted that this year marks the 40th anniversary of China's creation of the tree planting festival on March 12 each year. Over the past 40 years, China's forest coverage and its net volume of timber have doubled, he said, adding that China has made the largest contribution to the world's increase in the area of vegetation in recent times.