Half of the sandstorms occurring in north China and northeast China originate from outside the country, "China Daily" reported Saturday.
The northern part of China suffered 32 sandstorms last year, 56 percent of which were whipped up in the southern part of the Republic of Mongolia. The remaining 44 percent came mostly from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Beijing bore the brunt of 18 such storms last year. Sandstorms this year are expected to be as severe as last year in Beijing, the paper quoted an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration as saying.
The desert in Mongolia, together with that in the eastern part of Kazakhstan, forms one of the two major sources of the country's sandstorms.
Nearly one third of China's western regions, especially the Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, are also suffering serious desertification, making them another sandstorm source. Ecology along the route of the storms determines their severity in north and northeast China.
( People's Daily January 26, 2002)
