'Cloud planting' projects stop deserts from merging

陈小将

In the 1980s, the expansion patterns of three deserts indicated that they would eventually meet in Alshaa League, Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
That prediction led many local farmers and herders to leave their homes in search of better opportunities elsewhere.
The league, which is home to large areas of three major deserts — the Badain Jaran, the Tengger and the Ulan Buh — has long been plagued by desertification.
The encroaching sand threatened settlements near the Yellow River and the Helan Mountains, so in recent decades residents who refused to leave have tried a variety of methods to save their homes.
After Liu Hongyi graduated from Zhalantun Forestry College in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, in 1986, the Alshaa League native began working at a sand control station near his home.