Taklimakan Desert Control Afforestation - China

Taklimakan Desert Control Afforestation - China

Fu Guoxi checks the trees at a green belt built by his father Fu Zhizhou in Hejing County, the Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 11, 2025. Over the past four decades, Fu Zhizhou had planted more than 800,000 trees and his son Fu Guoxi took over the cause after his father passed away in 2024. The Taklimakan Desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region covers 337,600 square kilometers and its circumference measures 3,046 kilometers, making it the largest desert in China and the second-largest drifting desert in the world. Thanks to decades-long sand prevention and control efforts, the Taklimakan Desert was completely encircled with a sand-blocking green belt on Nov. 28, 2024. In 2025, Xinjiang aims to afforest a land area of about 796,000 hectares, including 562,666 hectares for frontline control in the Taklimakan Desert. These afforestations form a part of the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, the world's largest affor

CHINA-ITALY-MARCO POLO-INSPIRATION (CN)

CHINA-ITALY-MARCO POLO-INSPIRATION (CN)

(240323) -- BEIJING, March 23, 2024 (Xinhua) -- This photo taken with a mobile phone shows Lu Zhizhou, deputy chief editor of Yilin Press, speaking during an event commemorating the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death at the Italian Embassy in China in Beijing, capital of China, March 20, 2024. TO GO WITH "Across China: Marco Polo continues to be an inspiration in China, Italy 700 years after passing" (Xinhua/Luo Xin)