STORY: A visit to botanic garden in middle of China's largest desert
DATELINE: June 17, 2023
LENGTH: 0:01:43
LOCATION: URUMQI, China
CATEGORY: SOCIETY/ENVIRONMENT

SHOTLIST:
1 STANDUP (English): GOU LIFENG, Xinhua correspondent
2 various of the Tazhong Botanical Garden
3 SOUNDBITE (Chinese): CHANG QING, Senior engineer of Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences
4 various of the Tazhong Botanical Garden

STORYLINE:

STANDUP (English): GOU LIFENG, Xinhua correspondent
"Guess where I am now? At a holiday resort? No! I'm in the middle of the Taklimakan Desert, the world's second-largest shifting sand desert. It's also known as 'the sea of death.' This is the Tazhong Botanical Garden."

This botanical garden in China's Xinjiang is home to over 230 species of vegetation.

Through unremitting efforts, researchers have discovered new irrigation methods and ideal plants for growing the vegetation.

The plants selected here are often used in building shelterbelts along desert highways in the region.

SOUNDBITE (Chinese): CHANG QING, Senior engineer of Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences
"This is Calligonum mongolicum, one of the three major plants grown along the desert roads to prevent wind erosion and fix sand dunes. This plant has large horizontal roots which are tolerant to sand burial. So we use it to form the first barrier to protect the roads from sand encroachment. The other two species are tamarisk and sacsaoul. Sacsaoul has developed considerable tolerance to salt and drought. A mature tree can survive without irrigation for one or two months. And tamarisk is a mesophytic plant that can tolerate both drought and flood."

Over the past 20 years, plants cultivated in Tazhong Botanical Garden have not only been used in ecological protection in Xinjiang, but also introduced to African and Central Asian countries for desertification control.

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