Turning deserts into opportunities

Kubuqi and Saihanba in North China are widely seen as successful examples of the country's fight against desertification.

Both places were covered by forests and grasslands until about 400 years ago when the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) opened them for lumber. Following decades of deforestation, grazing forest fires, the two places turned into deserts toward the end of the Qing Dynasty.

However, desertification has been controlled by more than one-third in the 180,000-square-kilometer Kubuqi Desert, the seventh-largest in China, and the 750-sq-km Saihanba Desert thanks to the anti-desertification campaign launched in the 1960s. In fact, the two places are now national parks.