No longer shifting, Shapotou's sands bring tourists to the desert

YINCHUAN — An endless expanse of the Tengger Desert, China's fourth-largest, abuts Shapotou district in Zhongwei city, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, stretching as far as the eye can see. For many years, Tang Mingxi's relatives fought to keep these sand dunes, which used to draw closer by four to five meters every year, at bay.

In 1958, China's first desert railway, the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway, was inaugurated. To guarantee its safety, anti-desertification efforts poured into Shapotou, 60-year-old Tang's hometown. Thanks to innovative approaches like the use of straw checkerboard barriers, and other afforestation measures, the desert has been pushed back by a significant 25 kilometers, a historic triumph in human efforts over encroaching sands.

Tang returned to Shapotou after graduating from college and started a career in desert control. Today, he is a senior forestry engineer, and has been part of treating 730,000 mu (about 48,670 hectares) of desert. As a child, he saw a deadly sandstorm take the lives of his classmates, but now the vast sands have turned from enemy into friend.