A number of conifers are candidates for the Official Evergreen of Winter, but among the leaf-shedding shade trees there is just one superstar, the birch tree with its peeling snow-white bark.

In the Lesser Hinggan Mountains, innumerable white birch trees, intermingled with Korean pine and sawtooth oak, create a scene that reminds Xu Jing, 64, of a great green ocean.

A number of conifers are candidates for the Official Evergreen of Winter, but among the leaf-shedding shade trees there is just one superstar, the birch tree with its peeling snow-white bark. Birch… ...