The project, "Dunhuang Mogo Grottoes Sand-fixation Research", undertaken jointly by Chinese and American experts, recently passed experts' appraisal.
This achievement, gained through nearly a decade-long concentrated study, has coated Dunguang Mogo Grottoes, a world cultural heritage, with a layer of "green protector".
Located at the foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 km from the southeast of Dunhuang City, Gansu Province, the site now has 750 caves with a history from the 4th to the 14th century, distributed along the cliff of 1,700 meters from north to south. Strong wind, dry weather, wind erosion, sand dune and dust have always endangered the grottoes' preservation and environment.
Along with the rise of Dunhuang Studies and the development of protection of Dunhuang cultural relics, the said protection work has attracted increasing attention from the world people.
In 1988, the State Bureau of Cultural Relics and two US bodies-the Dunhuang Research Institute and Gatty Protection Institute, signed a contract designed to protect the "Dunhuang Mogo Grottoes Sand-fixation Research" project.
For nearly 10 years, Chinese and American experts have, on the basis of detailed discussion and proof of Dunhuang's climatic characteristics, natural geographical conditions, particularly the deposit, demand and distribution of water resources, carried out the selection of plant varieties, the design of the dripping irrigation system and the planting of saplings.
Since 1992, Mogo Grottoes has imported world advanced dripping irrigation technology and has successively planted rose willow, scoparium, sacsaoul, calliogonidine, caragana and other psammophytes at the foot of Mingsha Mountain, the two 2-km-long, 12-14-meter-wide experimental shelter belts and wind breaks have been completed, which have, through luxuriant leaves and the firm root system, effectively blocked the inroad of huge amounts of sand from the Mingsha Mountain to the grottoes area, thus creating a good environment for the protection of murals, color sculptures and ancient buildings.
Protect Dunhuang Grottos from Sand Attack
Experts from China and the United States have jointly built a "safety belt" for the famous Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, northwest China's Gansu Province, against sand attacks.
Based on their research on the climatic, natural and geological conditions and local water resources in the Dunhuang area in the past decade, experts selected plants adaptable to local conditions and developed a drop irrigation system to build the safety belt.
(People’s Daily 12/01/2000)
