Symposium on Desert Engineering Held in XinjiangThe sixth international symposium on desert engineering was recently held in Urumqi, capital of northwest china's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Desert control experts from all parts of the world exchanged views on desert engineering and measures to cope with desert encroachment. An American participant delivered a speech on the dangers of soil and wind erosion and ways to treat these problems. A Chinese expert outlined progress of sand control at Lop Nur in Xinjiang. Xinjiang is one of the world's four most sandstorm-prone places. Currently, it has 790,000 square kilometers of desert and the gobi dessert, which account for 60 percent of the national total. Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang is the second largest gobi, or floating desert in the world. Thanks to 50 years of work, the oasis in Xinjiang has expanded to 70,000 square kilometers, tripling the 1950 figure. |
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