Sand control project pays off in Ningxia

YINCHUAN - The distance between the southern edge of the Tengger Desert and the city of Zhongwei in northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region was once just a few kilometers, but it has been expanding over the past several years.

Tengger, the fourth-largest desert in China, is mostly in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and stretches to parts of Ningxia and Gansu province.

Residents of Zhongwei, who have suffered from desertification and land degradation for decades, said that in the 1950s, when the desert was around 5 kilometers away, even a gentle breeze would blow dust and sand into their homes.