China completes 3,046 km green belt encircling the Taklamakan Desert, visible from space
LinusEkenstam · x · 2026-10-15
LinusEkenstam details China's desertification fight: by late 2025 a continuous 3,046-km (1,892-mile) green belt fully encircles the Taklamakan Desert, pinning down shifting dunes to protect farmland, roads and cities.
Techniques include leveling dunes with heavy machinery, checkerboard grass grids, thousands of km of underground drip irrigation, and the Tarim Desert Highway lined with millions of trees powered by automated solar pumps — in a region getting under 11 mm of rain per year.
He frames the end goal as regenerating the entire Tarim Basin (possibly over 200+ years) and creating one of the largest man-made carbon sinks.
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