Wuhai city of Inner Mongolia at the crossroads of Wulan Buh, Kubq and Mu Us deserts has developed desert-related industries, turning the harms to good use.
Thanks to longer hours of exposure to sunshine and great temperature difference between the day and the night and a longer frost-free period, the city develops grape, melon and fruits, rattan, Saxoul (Haloxylon ammodendron) and other drought-resistant plant life that is well adapted to the sandy environment.
The city set up in 1996 an administration that is in charge of the national nature reserve in west Erdos and takes care of the endangered species in its area of 16,900 hectares. Since 1999, it has launched a series of ecological projects to protect its natural forests and return farmland to forested land or grassland.
It planted trees on 7300 hectares and encircled 2600 hectares of deserts for the protection of endangered species this year, 21 percent higher than last year. Since 2001, the city has forbidden grazing in an all-round way so that its grasslands may grow un-harassed. It has brought 41,000 sandy land under control.
It has planted grapes on 660 hectares of land and rattan on 13,000 hectares of enclosed land and Saxoul on 1,300 hectares.
It has planted trees in its forest farms of 12,900 hectares in the 2002-2003 period, accounting for 83.2 percent.
The city is developing a desert ecological tourist resort and a botanical garden of sandy plants in its north.
(www.cenews.com.cn September 1, 2003)
