STORY: Thai expat amazed by China's anti-desertification efforts
DATELINE: June 17, 2023
LENGTH: 0:02:35
LOCATION: YINCHUAN, China
CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT

SHOTLIST:
1 SOUNDBITE (English): RUEANG NGAM NAMRIN, Thai student, Ningxia Medical University

STORYLINE:

A Thai expat living in China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region visited an ecological reserve and learned how to make straw checkerboard barriers, one of the most effective and widely used measures for fixing sand dunes in the region.

SOUNDBITE (English): RUEANG NGAM NAMRIN, Thai student, Ningxia Medical University
"Hello, guys! This is my first time in desert. This place is called Baijitan in China's Yinchuan here. I was really excited because this is my first time in a desert. At first, I thought it would be hotter, like a very hot and dry place, but apparently it's really windy.
And these are my friends, we are here today, doing the checkerboard (sand barriers) here, like for the desert to not fall down apart. It's a very interesting activity, and I'm going to try to do it too.
It's really hard work of people around here, like my teacher has said that they have to make 10,000 checkerboards of grass like this every year to prevent the sand to go into the city.
Here is the checkerboard that has been done already. As you have seen, there are so many done here. They have already done, and they will put the trees down here, which makes me so happy, because they have been preserved. Most of the desert area up there, as you can see, is the green area up here. And here it will be putting down the trees soon.
So we have been here in the high peak and we have seen the nature from up here. You have seen that here, all of here in the past it's all desert area and now it has been changed into green, which makes me feel really like, relief and feel very pleased because I also have been into the museum. It has changed the ecosystem around here, like there are more animals, there are more trees, more living things around here. And it's like, it's a really amazing thing to do. The water here has been saving people, and the anti-desertification having saved people life, lessen the sandstorms and everything. It has been a very good project to make up this nature area here. And I have been really pleased to be here to know the culture here and, like know how the local people have been saving the city out here, it's very amazing to be here in China and experience these kinds of things."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Yinchuan, China.
(XHTV)