Story

The Desertification Train

May 28, 2009 | Pulitzer Center
By
Sean Gallagher, for the Pulitzer Center, China
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A lone tree is bent over as a dust-storm engulfs it.

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Children watch as the train passes.

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Inner Mongolia.

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Arid land in Gansu Province.

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The Great Wall of China ends in the western Jiayuguan of Gansu Province. After hundreds of years of erosion from wind and water, the wall is slowly being attacked once again.

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As desertification increases in the west of the country, life for China’s millions of farmers becomes increasingly difficult.

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As desertification increases in the west of the country, life for China’s millions of farmers becomes increasingly difficult.

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A tree engulfed by a sandstorm.

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Discarded refuse lines the train route in a small town in Inner Mongolia. General awareness and education about environmental issues and protection must be the first step for the country to combat desertification.

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As desertification increases in the west of the country, life for China’s millions of farmers becomes increasingly difficult.

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Dry and cracked soils form a mosaic following the route of the train-tracks in Gansu Province.

Winding its way through China's northern provinces of Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang the 'desertification train' travels 4000 kilometers from Beijing in the east of the country to the western borders with countries such as Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Passengers can witness first hand the severity of desertification in China, just by looking out of their carriage window. Passing by the drying Inner Mongolian grasslands, the rolling yellow sands of the Tengger and Taklamakan deserts and skirting the drying remains of the Great Wall of China, passengers are offered a front-row seat to the fight the country is having with its growing sands.