City in Inner Mongolia launches restoration, conservation projects to counter spreading sands.

An aerial photo shows part of the Horqin Desert in the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner on July 19 last year after 10 years of efforts to fight against desertification. HUA WEIGUANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

The Horqin Desert spans the provinces of Jilin and Liaoning and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, covering a total area of 5,175,000 hectares.

The desert covers 2,724,000 hectares of Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. As a result, Tongliao is one of the areas with the most severe desertification in the country and has an extremely fragile ecological environment.

Furthermore, the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in Tongliao accounts for 17.6 percent of the desert, with an area of 908,000 hectares.

A worker moves a pine seedling at a desert-governance project area in the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia autonomous region on April 16, 2021. HUA WEIGUANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

Over the years, Tongliao has made great efforts to fight desertification by launching projects involving grassland restoration and water conservation. It also banned grazing, and put a total of 1,423,000 hectares of desert under control.

The Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner is located in the heartland of the desert. Over the years, the banner has implemented comprehensive governance over a total of 568,000 hectares of the desert.

Pine seedlings are delivered to a planting site by a tractor on April 7, 2021. HUA WEIGUANG/FOR CHINA DAILY