North China's fight against desertification spurs prosperity

HOHHOT -- At 6 a.m., a pale light spills over the Kubuqi Desert as Zhang Xiwang steps through the dew, bends to gather a brittle stalk of sand wormwood, and lets its grains slip through his fingers.

"Ten years ago, the wind could bury your knees. Now the sand is damp in my fist and the willows we planted last year are pushing out new twigs," said Zhang, a 54-year-old "sand fighter."

Behind him, endless photovoltaic panels gleam in the rising sun while purple alfalfa sways beneath, forming a living photograph of a Chinese model that constantly refines itself.

The 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum concluded on Wednesday in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, bringing together over 260 representatives from China, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, Brazil, and other countries and regions to discuss desertification control.

In the past, northwestern China was under a yellow tyranny, where sandstorms darkened the sky and dunes advanced year after year, threatening the very essence of soil.

In the late 1970s, China resolutely set out to combat desertification. Through the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TSFP), the world's largest afforestation initiative launched in 1978 to restore northern, northwestern and northeastern regions, some 480 million mu (about 32 million hectares) of forest have taken root, raising the forest coverage rate from 5.05 percent in 1977 to 13.57 percent today, according to Tang Fanglin, deputy head of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

On an autumn day at the edge of the Kubuqi Desert, 56-year-old farmer Wang Jianguo squats beneath the photovoltaic panels, his weathered face beaming with joy as he surveys the thriving alfalfa.

Wang's home in Hangjin Banner, Ordos City, sits on a photovoltaic desert control base that was once shifting sandy land. In 2020, a local project was launched to combine desert management with clean energy development and specialty planting.

His annual family income now exceeds 60,000 yuan (about 8,421 U.S. dollars), more than three times their previous income from farming, thanks to revenue from land transfer, daily maintenance of photovoltaic panels, forage harvesting, and the sale of alfalfa grown beneath the panels to breeding cooperatives.

Tourism has taken root as well. Recently, 109 visitors from the Republic of Korea (ROK) came to the Yinkentala Desert scenic area in Ordos City, enjoying activities such as sliding, camel riding, and dune driving.

From June 11 to Sept. 15, the scenic area welcomed around 11,000 visitors from the ROK. The desert that once struck fear into the world now sells tickets to itself, offering sky-clear sand and folk songs that feel freshly discovered from the seat of a camel.

The Kubuqi Desert, China's seventh-largest, is situated in Inner Mongolia. Years of greening efforts have transformed over 646,000 hectares into lush greenery, restoring biodiversity and significantly improving the local ecology.

In 2015, the Kubuqi afforestation community won the Champions of the Earth award, the highest environmental honor of the United Nations.