Recently, people of all ethnic groups in Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, walked to the edge of the Taklamakan Desert to begin afforestation efforts. In addition to manual planting, machinery equipped with the BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, with manual assistance, can plant a tree every 5 seconds.
The sand-control and afforestation campaign of “machines racing for progress, people perfecting the details” continues to paint ecological scenes along the edge of the sea of sand.
The edge of the Taklamakan Desert stretches for 3,046 kilometers. Since it was “joined up” in 2024, people of all ethnic groups in Hotan Prefecture have used biological sand control, engineering sand fixation, photovoltaic sand control, and other measures along the protective belt, already treating 6.7038 million mu of desertified land.
This year, Hotan Prefecture plans to complete desertified land management over an area of 2.2305 million mu, including 266,900 mu of artificial afforestation, continuing to consolidate and expand the achievements of edge stabilization and constantly weaving and broadening the “green neckband.”