31 years on, greening effort keeps desert highway open in NW China's Xinjiang

Photo shows the Tazhong botanical garden in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo/Wang Chengkai)

Deep in the Taklimakan Desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a green belt winds through endless dunes, protecting the country's first desert road, the Tarim Desert Highway.

When the highway opened to traffic 31 years ago, some predicted it would eventually be buried by sand and abandoned. Today, off-road vehicles and heavy trucks carrying drilling equipment travel the route, protected by a 436-kilometer shelterbelt comprising more than 20 million plants.

The 562-kilometer highway, fully opened in October 1995, established an energy corridor across the desert, but vegetation was needed to hold back the wind and sand. The conditions are harsh. The desert receives less than 11 millimeters of rain a year, while annual evaporation exceeds 3,800 millimeters. Groundwater is plentiful but highly saline, with a salt concentration of 27.8 grams per liter, which most plants cannot tolerate.

To find species that could survive, the Tarim Oilfield, a major oil and gas producer in the region, and the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography under the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched a plant-screening program. Tamarisk, haloxylon and calligonum, all hardy desert shrubs, proved promising. The shelterbelt project began in August 2003, along with the Tazhong botanical garden.

The botanical garden has introduced nearly 500 plant species, more than 230 of which have thrived. Acclimatization is the most time-consuming step, and it can take three to five years to determine whether a species can survive in the desert.

"Plants that have been screened and acclimatized can all be irrigated directly with saline water," said Chang Qing, a senior engineer at the institute.

Maintenance workers clean solar panels along the Tarim Desert Highway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Li Ya'nan)

Each species was planted according to its characteristics. Calligonum, which has well-developed roots and grows fast, was planted in the outermost sand-blocking belt. Haloxylon, which is highly salt-tolerant, was used in highly saline areas. Tamarisk was planted in low-lying spots where water may collect, since haloxylon cannot withstand waterlogging. Drip irrigation made planting in the desert possible.

Workers lived in tents along the road, enduring freezing temperatures at night. Each worker had to plant thousands of seedlings over a six-week period in spring, Chang recalled.

When the project was completed in 2005, the plants formed an ecological barrier more than 70 meters wide, with a survival rate of over 85 percent.

Keeping the belt alive is a daily task. A total of 109 well houses are located along the highway, roughly one every 4 kilometers. A maintenance team established by the Tarim Oilfield keeps them staffed year-round.

Guan Deying, who tends two well houses with her husband, opens the water valve each morning, allowing saline water pumped from more than 80 meters underground to flow through drip lines to the plants' roots. The couple spend eight months a year at the well houses, resting only in winter. In midsummer, the road surface can reach 40 degrees Celsius, while sand temperatures can exceed 50 degrees.

Maintenance workers repair drip irrigation equipment along the Tarim Desert Highway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Li Ya'nan)

In 2022, the oilfield began a "desert control plus new energy" initiative, switching all 109 wells from diesel-powered pumps to solar power. The solar facilities, with a total installed capacity of 3,540 kilowatts, fully meet the shelterbelt's daily irrigation needs, said Chen Wen, executive director and Party secretary of the oilfield's Tazhong oil and gas management zone.

The shelterbelt also absorbs about 32,000 tonnes of carbon a year, equivalent to the emissions of nearly 300,000 passing vehicles, helping make the highway a low-carbon transport corridor.

The shelterbelt's vegetation now stands at an average height of over 2 meters. More than 100 bird species have settled along the green corridor, while hares, gerbils and sand foxes have made it their home.