Baijitan sets an example in combating desertification

YINCHUAN — On a sunny August morning, Li Guobao carefully tended his farmland of sand leeks in the Baijitan national ecological reserve in Lingwu city, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, hoping that this would bring economic benefits and encourage more people to join the cause of afforestation.

Lingwu, located on the southwest edge of the vast Mu Us Desert, one of China's major deserts, was once subjected to severe sand encroachment, with the desert occupying farmlands and houses and forcing tens of thousands of people to relocate.

The harsh environment prompted people to fight desertification to reclaim the land robbed by the desert.