The once arid land becomes lush as water conveyed from the south supplements the Qili River in Xingtai, northern China's Hebei province. The central route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project had cumulatively transported 20 billion cubic meters of water to northern China as of Feb. 15, benefiting more than 53 million people along the route in Henan, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin. This volume of diverted water from Danjiangkou Reservoir to northern China since Dec. 12, 2014 — when the central route was officially put into operation — is equal to one-third of the Yellow River's annual water flow. [Photo/workercn.cn]