When talking about sandstorms, Chen looks serious. He says, “The sandstorm started about 20 years ago. It is only recently that Beijing is being affected by them. They originate of course from present desert areas that were once grass and plant land.”

According to the statistics, sandstorms began in the second half of the twentieth century with about 60 percent originating from southern Mongolia. In the 1950s, China experienced only five storms, rising to 13 in 1970, 23 in 1990 with current statistics showing much higher rates.

Today, the sandstorms are broader and stronger, originating from remote Mongolia and reaching across the whole of the country. The deputy spoke of the source of the storms being from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu and Hebei.

According to the deputy, Inner Mongolia being home to five large deserts in China (including Badain Jaran, Tengger, Kerqin, and Hulun Buir) is an inevitable source of the problem. The area comprises 710,000 sq. km and is bigger than seven Jiangsu Province, but what concerns the most is that the sandy area is increasing by 6,680 kilometers per year, with Beijing close to the sand areas by 180 kilometers, when each spring the wind blows the yellow sand through the country and into the cities.

“Excessive reclamation, herding and man-made destruction are the main causes for desertification,” Chen says. Local farmers have a saying: “Reclaim the grasslands the first year and harvest only a little grain the next. For the third and fourth there will only be sand for food.” In the last number of decades, the reclamation was seen as a source of food production and necessary for livelihood but now the livestock are no longer able to survive on the remaining vegetation and the problem continues. However, it is good that the damage has been stopped and that the main aim now is to reverse some of the damage and repair the land.

The central authorities have already attached considerable significance to the problem and have addressed desertification many times. Hunshandake sandy area is central to a massive project now that has seen an investment of 900 million yuan with 3.75 billion yuan spent on Inner Mongolia’s problem in its ecological construction fund to date.

In the Xilingol League where the main deserts are situated, an effort is being made to rationalize the production of traditional breeding stock and carry out activities to “enclose the grassland and forbid herds to graze and encourage emigration in the area; regulating stockbreeding industry structures and promoting a diversified economy that would include milking cows, rearing sheep and keeping cows in pens and also to stop the cultivation of fields and turn them into forests instead.

Chen said, “To control the sandstorms we should take our scientific methods and our technology and the government should guarantee the quality and power of support for the ecology movement and promote and protect our environmental consciousness: stressing education for everyone. Chen concluded that this is his proposal to the NPC.

In conclusion, the ecological specialist took out an education book entitled, ‘Primary School Students Textbook on Ecology’ and said that this book, that was edited by him, expressed all his good wishes.

(China.org.cn by Staff Reporter Yan Xinxia, translated by Chen Lin, March 16, 2003)