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An ancient oasis in destitute Gansu province along the historic Silk Road, Dunhuang is in danger of being swallowed by the sands of the adjacent Kumtag desert, which are creeping closer at a rate of up to 13 feet a year... The problem stems from centuries of unsustainable grazing and farming practices and overuse of already slim and strained water resources. The government has attempted to blunt the spread through reforestation, incentives and other means... Once a welcome oasis for Silk Road travelers thanks to an ancient store of groundwater, Dunhuang is drying up. [page 2] The water table in...

The related article: China's miracle in the desert is drying up

China's miracle in the desert is drying up By Jim Yardley The New York Times SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2005 DUNHUANG, China At the bottom of the mountainous dunes once traversed by traders and pilgrims on the ancient Silk Road, Wang Qixiang stood with a camera draped around his neck. He was a modern pilgrim of sorts, a tourist. He and his wife had traveled by train more than 3,200 kilometers, or 2,000 miles, from eastern China to the forbidding emptiness of the Gobi Desert to glimpse a famous pool of water known as Crescent Lake. They came because the lake...

Discoveries reveal a flourishing Dunhuang 1,000 years ago www.chinaview.cn 2004-03-21 15:20:33 LANZHOU, March 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Documents and other cultural objects unearthed from China's Mogao Grottoes, in northwest Gansu Province, provide evidence that Dunhuang was a flourishing international trade city over 1,000 years ago. Professor Zheng Binglin, also a research fellow with the Dunhuang Studies Institute of the Lanzhou University, made the conclusion based on his research on documents and other cultural objects of late Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Five Dynasties period (907-960). Dunhuang city, located in the western part of Gansu, is now a famous tourism city because it...