The Tengger Desert or Tengri Desert ( mn, Тэнгэр цөл, ) is an

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora an ...

that covers about 36,700 km² and is mostly in the

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

Autonomous Region in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. The desert is expanding in size.Haner, Josh, et al. (24 October 2016)
Living in China's Expanding Deserts
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Environmental issues

The expansion of the Tengger and its neighbour, the

Badain Jaran Desert The Badain Jaran Desert () is a desert in China which spans the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. It covers an area of . By size it is the third largest desert in China. This desert is home to some of the tallest stationary dunes o ...

, has been apparent since the 1950s, when large volumes of water were diverted from rivers to feed agricultural expansion and huge tracts of forest were removed. Since 1958, local governments have mobilised residents for afforestation campaigns to prevent the desert's spread. By 2004, the desert's expansion was estimated as 10 metres per year in some areas. In 2007, a non-profit organisation founded by residents of

Minqin County Minqin County () is a county of Gansu province, the People's Republic of China. It is under the jurisdiction of Wuwei City. Its postal code is 733300, and its population in 1999 was 281,826 people. In older literature, today's Minqin is referr ...

created square ditches lined with hay and grass that they later planted with

saxaul ''Haloxylon'' is a genus of shrubs or small trees, belonging to the plant family Amaranthaceae. ''Haloxylon'' and its species are known by the common name saxaul. According to Dmitry Ushakov, the name borrowed from the Kazakh "seksevil". In moder ...

to stabilise the sand dunes. In 2010, the central and regional governments announced a five-year

reforestation Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands ( forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting. Management A de ...

plan to create a 202-km

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which h ...

between the Tengger and Badain Jaran deserts. The project was estimated to receive 280 million yuan in funding and involve the relocation of 1,000 residents.

Features

File:CamelsinTengger.jpg, Camel ride in the Tengger Desert, August 19, 2005 File:沙坡头, Shapotou, Tengger Desert - panoramio (1).jpg,

Shapotou District Shapotou District (, Xiao'erjing: شَاپُوَتِوْ ٿِيُوِ) is a district of Zhongwei, Ningxia, China, noted for the Tengger Desert, and bordering Inner Mongolia to the north and Gansu province to the west. It is the site of the Shapo ...

, Tengger Desert File:A picture from China every day 269.jpg, A view of the Tengger Desert File:Alxa Zuoqi, Alxa, Inner Mongolia, China - panoramio - 摩游乐 (74).jpg, A view of the Tengger Desert

References

External links

NASA imaging: Dust Storm in the Tengger Desert
Deserts of China Geography of Inner Mongolia Ergs Geography of Ningxia Tengriism {{InnerMongolia-geo-stub

Environmental issues

Features

See also

References

External links