It is about 260 kilometers northeast of Yinchuan.

There is a city standing here - Hangjin Banner, which is attacked by the Kubuqi Desert and the Mu Us Desert from north to south, just like the thousand-year-old poplar trees, deeply rooted in this windy and sandy land.

After being interrogated from Shizuishan City, he was warned and educated again. Julie and Vivian came to the Sini Town in Hangjin Banner again.

Vivian, wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy vest, and Julie, who had short hair cut, hired a local tour guide and took a tourist bus to set off from Sini town and headed towards Yan Haizi along the provincial road.

There is a huge pipeline next to the highway, parallel to the highway, and you can see many small pipelines extending from time to time.

On both sides of the road, there are dense sand-fixing lattices or small patches of sparse trees, shrubs and grasslands, and you can occasionally see small gathering places for residents next to the road.

Putting down the telescope, Julie turned her head and asked, "Hana, is this pipeline a natural gas pipeline?"

Tour guide Bai Hana shook her head: "No, it's a water supply pipe."

Suddenly Julie saw a large area of ​​"farmland" in front of her and a very dense black "forest". She asked in surprise: "Isn't this desert? There are actually farmlands and forests."

"Oh! So cool!" Vivian waved her cowboy hat and shouted.

Bai Hana smiled and said, "The farmland is real, but the forest is not real. You will know when you get close to it!"

The tourist bus advanced about two kilometers and stopped by the roadside. Julie looked at the scene in front of her. Fengmin Agriculture's sand transformation machinery team operated various equipment to transform large mobile sand dunes and semi-flow sand dunes.

Not far away, the converted sand has been removed from harmful saline-alkali substances and mixed with a large amount of organic fertilizer, and it turns into a dirt-gray color. Compared with those dirt-yellow deserts, it looks clear.

“What is this planting”

"It should be Alfala, this plant can improve soil quality." Bai Hana looked at the fence sign not far away with using a telescope.

Looking at the scene in front of you, Julie was lamenting the industrial power of mankind, and another thought emerged in her heart, and she muttered to herself in a low voice: "Will large-scale desert transformation cause other ecological problems?"

With this question, they came to Fengmin Agriculture's temporary operation station nearby. On one side of the temporary station, there is an artificial lake with an area of ​​tens of thousands of square meters, with half of the area covered with solar panels, which not only supplies electricity to the station, but also reduces the evaporation of the water in the artificial lake.

Zhang Guodong, a researcher at the Kubuqi Desert Control Project Team of Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, and several heads of Fengmin Agriculture, were discussing the transformation of the Kubuqi Desert.

Suddenly I saw three girls coming over, and there were two white people. Although there were white people in the country, Zhang Guodong, who had been struggling in the northwest for more than ten years, could tell at a glance that the other party was a foreigner.

Although it is not a confidentiality unit, Suiren is very vigilant against foreigners, so a security guard immediately went up to inquire.

After a while, a security guard came to Zhang Guodong and reported to the resident team leader: "Group Huang, two foreign women, said he wanted to visit our desert control."

The resident team leader was about to drive out people, but Zhang Guodong smiled and said, "Group Huang, I'll take them to see you! Anyway, I'm going to inspect Yan Haizi these days."

"Then I'll trouble Researcher Zhang, but be careful about everything." The resident team leader reminded.

Zhang Guodong nodded: "Understand."

Julie, Vivian and Bai Hana, who were stopping and watching not far away, saw a middle-aged man with dark skin and glasses walking towards them.

"You want to visit desert control"

"It's these two foreign friends. I want to visit. I am their guide." Bai Hana explained.

After getting to know each other, Julie, who was familiar with her, expressed her own question: "Dr. Zhang, is it possible for humans to transform the desert on a large scale, to lead to other ecological problems?"

"Ms. Julie, your problem is very profound. If it is a native desert, it is part of the ecology itself. The transformation of this part of the desert will indeed cause ecological problems."

Julie asked with some concern: "Then your transformation activities here will affect the ecological environment."

"NO, Julie, you have to figure out one thing, what are native deserts and man-made deserts? This land under our feet was actually a grassland with abundant water and grass hundreds of years ago." Zhang Guodong pointed to the sand under his feet and explained:

"This has become a desert because of the transition to reclamation and grazing, which has led to the desertification of the land. Our current transformation is to restore the ecological environment here."

"So that's it." Julie suddenly realized.

On the tourist bus, Zhang Guodong took Julie and others to Yan Haizi in the north, and became increasingly dense as he approached Yan Haizi, farmland, savanna, and "forests".

At this time, they finally saw clearly that they saw the "black forest" before, which turned out to be dense solar panels.

"It turned out to be a solar panel, and I thought it was a forest." Vivian said in surprise.

"To a certain extent, these solar panels can also be called trees." Zhang Guodong said with a smile.

In fact, what he said is not wrong. Although the solar power plant in the Kubuqi desert is designed to be a tree, it looks a bit formalistic.

However, solar cell trees have many characteristics of trees.

Through photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, while maintaining water and soil, and maintaining the local small ecology.

Solar cell trees convert solar energy into electrical energy through photoelectric effects and thermoelectric effects. Power plants can extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce carbon powder and oxygen.

Similarly, solar cell trees can also maintain water and soil, reduce the evaporation of the soil moisture, and make the local climate more humid.

Solar cell tree is an alternative "silicon-based tree".

Zhang Guodong did not explain in depth.

After a while, the tourist bus arrived at the desert control experimental area of ​​Northwest A&F University. The group seemed to have left the desert and entered a sparse tree, shrub and grassland.

Several tall poplars are rooted at the gate of the experimental area, like soldiers with a solemn expression.

There are thyme, sea buckthorn, sand-bred needle spears, multiple onions, and a large number of perennial grass plants such as sand rice.

"Dr. Zhang, how big is this desert?"

Hearing Julie’s question, Zhang Guodong replied without hesitation: “About 13,900 square kilometers, the 5,153 square kilometers that have been managed so far, and the remaining two-thirds of the desert area will be transformed into farmland, grassland and solar power plants in the future.”

Julie exclaimed: "Greater than my hometown of Corsica."

The group walked to the depths of the experimental area and saw many students from Northwest A&F University doing experiments or collecting samples.

According to the overall renovation plan of the Kubuqi Desert, 30% farmland, 30% pasture, and 40% savannah nature reserves, in order to facilitate management, the three areas are concentrated together.

With the extension of the water supply pipes, the Kubuqi Desert will be completely eliminated and become the Kubuqi Agricultural Zone.

5,000 square kilometers of farmland is 7.5 million mu, which is a very important supplement to China with sparse arable land resources.
Chapter completed!