Glorious Dreams of a Desert City

Years ago, Barbara Freese, American environmental attorney and writer, boarded a Beijing train bound for the heart of the old continent of Asia. As it approached the Ordos Desert in Inner Mongolia, she observed how the landscape changed from green farmland and mountains to bare boundless sands, with sporadic flocks of sheep and lone herders. This barren ground with its rocky knolls, dotted with small patches of grass and shrubs, seemed to offer few life resources for humankind and higher creatures. But Barbara was surprised to see factory buildings flashing past along the railway line every now and then. She later discovered that as the region was covered with dense forest millions of years ago it has abundant coal deposits that fuel its industry. Ordos (formerly Ih Ju League) first became known in and outside of China through the local Erdos (Ordos) company's catchy slogan, "Erdos cashmere warms the whole globe," which made the brand a household name. The city has lucrative resources in addition to its famous goat fleece, including tourism, energy and chemical industry. Ordos, Baotou and Hohhot constitute an economic golden triangle in the region.     

Desert in Bloom

<正>Surrounded by boundless desert and buffeted by sandstorms,unfrozen at minus20 degrees Celsius,a massive project quietly came into production in the Qaidam Basin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on November 30.Designed to effectively utilize the lithium,boron and potassium resources of the Yiliping Salt Lake,the project is now running with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of potassium chloride,a chemical with multiple uses     

Green Desert City with a New Outlook

Hohhot,capital city of inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an historical city on the beautiful Chile plain of western China. its pure blue sky and high air quality have earned it the "National Hygienic Sanitary City," "One of China’s Top Tourism Destination Cities" and "China’s Milk City" awards. The millen-nium-old Song of Chile, so celebrates its beauty: "The Chile plain sits under the Yin Mountains, The sky envelops the plains like a huge yurt. The heavens are deep blue and the steppe broad, When the wind blows, livestock can be seen among lush grasses."     

Green Desert

Inner Mongolia’s Hobq Desert creates an oasis of wealth Located southwest of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,the Hobq Desert has become in two decades a symbol of the fight against desertification in China and a meeting place for people interested in the subject.The Hobq International Conference Center is the traditional venue of the biennial Hobq     

Desert Groove

<正>From the far southern reaches of the Sahara,a musical trio brings Tuareg culture to China Born to a family of blacksmiths in the city of Agadez,on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in Niger,nothing predestined Goumour Omar Adam to become a musician.In fact,his journey into music was     

Taming the Desert

<正>Efforts to reverse desertification and land degradation in Inner Mongolia offer a template for further exploration In 2000,throughout March and April,Beijing was engulfed in one of the worst spell of sandstorms in history.It was at that time that many Chinese people became acutely aware of the threat of     

Desert Rail Loop

<正>New railway line is expected to bring prosperity to XinjiangFor Hou Chaoru,a teacher in Qiemo County in Ho tan,Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,the 3,000-km journey back to her home province of Hebei has never been more convenient.The completion of a new cross-desert railway line with a station in Qiemo has significantly shortened what used to be a five-day busand-train pilgrimage back east.     

Making the Desert Bloom

One of the world＇s most magnificent deserts lies in Ningxia, a small autonomous region in northwestern China. Occupying up to 60 percent of the region＇s territory, its breathtaking vistas, rolling sand dunes, ancient petroglyphs and mysterious Western Xia royal mausoleums constitute an ecological and cultural treasurehouse.     

Transforming Desert Into Forest

<正>The 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification was held in Ordos,Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,in September.Delegates to the session were impressed by the success that China has made in curbing desertification.The following is an edited version of an article published on the website of Xinhua News Agency on September 13 on the measures that local people have taken to harness the Kubuqi Desert.     

Fuhai,Desert Oasis

LARGE tracts of western China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are smothered in dusty sand. Set against this barren landscape is Fuhai County, a lush green area that extends to the Altai Mountains in the north and the plains and deserts of the south. Two rivers - the Ulungur and the Ertix - run through this fertile region, together creating miles of verdant pasture. Fuhai is also home to the Alxa Nature Reserve.     

Desert County of Cotton

C OTTON farmer Ab- dula Amuti of Yuli County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region regards the vast expanse of white cotton about him with justifiable pride. The output of seed cotton on his four hectares of cotton fields this year is 16.8 tons - 600 kilograms up on last year. Yuli County is in central Xinjiang, 502 kilometers from the capital Urumqi and 50 kilometers from the region's sec- ond largest city, Korla, on the borders of the vast Taklimakan Desert. As its high temperatures and …     

Green Gift From the Desert

正Northwestern province becomes Hong Kong’s source of treasured veggies The life of Zeng Xiangji, a farmer in Minqin County, Gansu Province in northwest China, is closely linked to Hong Kong although he has never been to the special administrative region (SAR)in the south. In 2017, the 46-year-old started to sell vegetables to Hong Kong, including the     

Holding the Desert at Bay

<正>Chinese people win some battles in taming the deserts Like a long and narrow belt,Hobq Desert stretches hundreds of kilometers in north China.It is one of the largest deserts in China and also the closest to     

沙漠：一个独特的生态系统

地球表面约四分之一的地区，约3370万平方公里，在一定意义上被定义为“沙漠”。从全球来看，很多地区的沙漠，核心地带仍保持着一种原始的最本质的自然状态，体现着这个星球仅剩的最荒芜的景色。     

Deep in the Desert,the Diaolang People

Home of the Daolang People
The term ＂Daolang＂ means in the local dialect ＂a pile here, a pile there,＂ and, by extension, a people that lives in scattered groups. This interpretation accords well with the huntergatherer way of life led by the ancient Daolang people.     

Journey to Ulan Bator-a train ride across the Gobi Desert

Aland-locked state three times the size of France bordered by Rus sia to the north and China to thesouth, Mongolia is far away from moder-ating maritime influences. After a short,pleasant summer, when the temperaturecan go up to 30 degrees, the long wintercan produce January temperatures below-40 in the capital Ulan Bator. This is muchcolder than would be expected for a lati-tude of 47 degrees North. A major factorin this is the wind which, when it blowsfrom the north, can q…     

When the Desert Sands Run Out

正A desert in northwest China is poised to disappearthanks to greening Those who haven't been to the Mu Us Desert in northwest China may not have an opportunity to do so as the desert is disappearing from the map.According to recent statistics from the Shaanxi provincial forestry bureau,93.24 percent of the desert land     

Wang Wenbiao: Reclaiming the Desert

DESERTIFICATION is a major problem across the world, as insidious sand invades arable lands and threatens food production. This problem is likely to get worse with expected climate change. But in the Hobq Desert, the opposite has happened. Over 5,000 square kilometers of barren land has been turned into an oasis, and another area twice that size has been saved from desertification.     

The Business of Fighting The Desert

Before 2002, Liu Fenghai often struggled to squeeze enough sustenance from his farm in Talahao, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to feed himself and the other three members     

Four-wheeling Through the Onqin Daga Desert

Burgeoning private car ownership has broadened China's scope of holiday travel. Tours in cross-country vehicles are increasingly popular, and make exploring remoter regions an exciting and viable vacationing proposition.