Written by: Yan Yu, Li Jiabao
Posted on: November 28, 2018 | 
| 中文
Qixing Lake Desert Ecotourism Area in the Kubuqi Desert
Kubuqi National Desert Park of Inner Mongolia, China, is a verdant space, where the shadows of the trees dance. It’s hard to imagine that it was once barren and buried in sand. After years of scientific de-desertification, spring has come to Kubuqi again. The wasteland has become the model of global desertification control, and the best window for observing beautiful China.
A Green and Hopeful Desert
Recently, Pakistan's ARY News website published an article recognizing Kubuqi’s green achievement. It points out that enterprises, local people and the government started combating desertification with joint efforts in 1988. Thirty years later, one third of the Kubuqi Desert has become green, and the secondary industries have mushroomed. It quoted UNEP data, saying that Kubuqi Ecological Recovery Program created an estimated wealth of $1.8 billion during the 50 years.
The Kubuqi Desert is located to the north of Ordos Plateau in Inner Mongolia, on the south bank of the Yellow River. According to Independence Online, the News network of South Africa, “The Kubuqi Desert is the 7th largest desert in China. It used to be called sea of death because of the unfriendly natural conditions and stark poverty local people suffered from.”
Nowadays, Kubuqi has changed greatly. It has become the land of hope as it has undergone a historical transformation, from being threatened to withdraw by sand, to pushing on against sand with reforestation. George Steinmetz, photographer of National Geographic, visited Kubuqi in 2016 and 2017 and was amazed by it, saying “Desert does mean terrible environment, barrenness in resources and poor people. However, the Kubuqi Desert in China is very different. It is a green and hopeful desert.” The moment his pictures about the green Kubuqi were released overseas, they won praises.
The Times of the United States also published work about the great change occurring in Kubuqi. “People have planted peculiar plants to fix floating sand and prevent it from invading farmland and villages. Once disappeared flocks of cattle and sheep have reappeared. The secondary industries have seen rapid development and tourists come in flocks.”
The Kubuqi Mode has become a model of battling desertification and won popular acclaim in the international community. According to Antonis Samalas, former premier of Greece, the systematic design of the Kubuqi Mode is unique and very effective. UNEP praises that Kubuqi is, “a pioneer, communicating with the concept of green innovation around the world.”
A Textbook of Global Desertification Control
In September 2017, the story of Babu, a herdsman in the Kubuqi Desert, was published in a mainstream newspaper in Romania. The article “The Kubuqi Mode?New Life of the People in the Desert” described the great impact of desertification control on Babu and his family on a whole page. According to the author, “We may know the significance of the transformation of the desert for human beings and even for the earth by reading Babu’s story.” Amazed at the green miracle of the Kubuqi Desert, the international community is strongly interested in Chinese wisdom embodied in desertification control, and wants to explore the means that contributed to the success of the Kubuqi Mode.
“Kubuqi is the textbook of desertification control around the world,” said Professor Victor Squires of the University of Adelaide, Australia, after doing research in Kubuqi. In his view, the success of the Kubuqi Mode owes much to the exploitation of comprehensive means in the desert for opportunity of development.
According to Michel Shaerma, editor of the review section of Business Standard, India, Kubuqi’s mode of solar photovoltaic power generation program which integrates power generation, grass planting and sheep herding on, between and beneath the panel is very creative. He hopes it is practiced in India in the future.
An article published in Independence Online, South Africa’s news website was all praises for the strategy where by planting Chinese medicinal herbs, such as licorice, Kubuqi puts other enterprises in motion, thus improving local people’s life. Meanwhile, herbs growing well in the desert, contribute to alleviating desertification.
During the 6th Kubuqi International Desert Forum in 2017, TACC in Russia published an article titled, “The International Community Speaks Highly of China’s Kubuqi Mode of Desertification Control,” arguing that the core of the Kubuqi Mode is the support of the government in policy, enterprises’ investment, herdsmen’s engagement in the market and the sustained ecological improvement.
Leader in Global Ecological Protection
Desertification is called the cancer of the earth, a difficult problem in the field of ecology around the world. Desertification control is like storming a heavily armed fortress, and it’s a prolonged battle. The success of “the Kubuqi Mode” is recognized as the Chinese solution to combat the “cancer.” Media has flocked to Kubuqi, to closely observe it for inspiration.
“In South Sudan, people treat desertification by moving away from places that are hit by it, to let the ecological conditions recover, which takes a very long time. People in Kubuqi treat it by tackling it directly. I will bring the Kubuqi Mode back to let more people know about it,” said James Arusi Atanga, a journalist from South Sudan, after he visited Kubuqi.
Hawthorn, a journalist from News of Egypt raised a direct question, “How is it possible that desertification control of the Kubuqi Desert has been carried out for as long as 30 years?” The answer is not difficult to find. True to foreign media’s observation, the amazing achievement of desertification control of the Kubuqi Desert, is due to China's persistent efforts in putting the green development concept into practice. Once surrounded by floating sand, the verdant Kubuqi Desert has become a lively miniature of the beautiful China construction.
In March 2018, the website of World Politics Review published an article reporting that China's state council established a Ministry of Ecology and Environment, which marks the government’s strong will to promote ecological construction. An article in Prensa Latina titled, “Battle for Environmental Protection in China Is Getting Serious,” comments, “The Chinese government is quickening its pace for constructing an ecological system, which is called campaign for ‘Beautiful China’.” It notes, “The Chinese government integrates the global target of climate change and environmental protection with the construction of beautiful China.”
Translated by Shan Xuemei
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