Severe Typhoon Vicente damaged 115,000 trees in Shenzhen, including 30,000 that were uprooted, leaving the city with its biggest clean-up challenge in decades.
By comparison, Vicente felled about 1,000 trees when it slammed into Hong Kong on Monday night.
Huang Tianren, a deputy director of the landscaping division of the Shenzhen urban management bureau, said it would replant 90,000 trees - 30,000 that were uprooted and 60,000 left leaning at a precarious angle. The bureau is aiming to save 98 per cent of these trees.
However, one worker involved with the replanting effort doubted whether it would be of any help. Most of the trees were imported from other provinces, the Southern Metropolis Daily quoted the employee as saying.
The trees would die if immediately placed back in holes still full of rainwater, the worker said.
Huang Zhongyuan, the secretary general of the Shenzhen Landscape and Park Trade Association, said the large number of damaged trees had to be placed in the context of Shenzhen's rapid increase in greenery coverage. The city has always prided itself on its extensive greenery and it added even more for the world student games, which it hosted last summer.