Ningxia’s desert warriors are mixing ancient wisdom with modern tech to hold back the sands! 🏜️ This northwestern region – once threatened by the Tengger Desert’s shifting dunes – now showcases China’s 70-year evolution in eco-battles.
From Straw Grids to ‘Sand Handcuffs’
Remember the 1950s wheat straw grids? 📐 Picture farmers creating checkerboard patterns that act like nature’s prison bars for sand. Now meet their 21st-century upgrade: brush net rope barriers that work like sand handcuffs, keeping dunes in place while new vegetation grows.
Where Desert Meets River
At Shapotou’s dramatic landscape, the Yellow River’s blue waters clash with golden dunes taller than skyscrapers 🏙️. Thanks to these grass grid ‘force fields’, the desert retreat has created space for railways, solar farms, and even tourist attractions!
Local farmer Ma Xiaogang tells us: ‘The sand used to bury our crops overnight. Now my kids play where dunes once stood.’ 🌱
