URUMQI, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Despite the winter chill, Moyu County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is still bustling with sand-control efforts. Bulldozers roar across the Taklimakan Desert, leveling dunes to install straw checkerboards, which serve as vital defenses against shifting sands.
These intricate grids of dry reeds, pressed firmly into the sand, act as "locks" that stabilize the dunes and prevent the desert from encroaching on local communities.
Yasin Turdi, a local resident, is one of the many working on the frontline. Using a specialized spade to anchor reeds into pre-marked grids, he explained that the secret lies in the resilience of these reeds.
"Dry reeds have much better toughness than fresh ones after going through a precise four-step process of selection, cutting, laying and fixing," he noted.
The Taklimakan, the world's second-largest shifting desert, covers an area of 337,600 square kilometers and has long been a significant ecological challenge for northwest China.
However, a major milestone was reached in November 2024 with the completion of a 3,046-kilometer green belt encircling the desert.
For officials like Lu Yang from the forestry and grassland bureau of Moyu County, winter is a "golden window" for fortifying defenses.
During the desert's dormant phase at this time of year, sandstorms reach their lowest frequency while dune movement stabilizes, thus providing a critical opportunity to level the land and prepare it for spring planting, effectively cutting off the paths of spring dust storms at their source.
The seasonal shift has also transformed the local economy. Traditionally a period of leisure, winter is now a time of productivity for local farmers, who transition from their fields to the desert. They harvest reeds from the banks of the Karakax River and in the Lharikon wetlands.
For Abdushukur Metbakhi, a villager from Moyu's Zawa Township, this work has generated an additional income. "I can earn over 10,000 yuan (about 1,427.5 U.S. dollars) in just two or three months," he said.
The community has also developed a "green loop" where excess reeds are processed into mats and sold via e-commerce, preventing the plants from rotting in wetlands and polluting water sources while creating a new stream of income, said Mirbulla Ruz Muhammad, a grassroots official in Zawa.
After the winter sand barriers are established, the land is planted in the spring with a mix of ecological forests, such as red willow, and economic forests, including apple and jujube trees, with these efforts supported by flood irrigation and groundwater.
The results are tangible. To date, Moyu has treated over 494,400 mu (about 32,960 hectares) of desertified land. In 2025 alone, the county's air quality improved significantly, with the proportion of "good air" days rising by 16.2 percent and the average PM10 concentration dropping by more than 31.3 percent compared to the previous year.
As the sun set over the Taklimakan, casting a golden glow across seemingly endless patterns of straw checkerboards, the roar of machinery gradually faded. But the work of the winter "sand lockers" is again leaving its important mark on the dunes. ■
