May 17 (Report) — On an afternoon in mid-May, along the Qibai Line in Bayan Hujiao Gacha, Wudan Town, Ongniud Banner, Chifeng City, several sand-control workers were bent over, busy at work. Beneath their feet lay stretches of neat, uniform straw checkerboards, tightly "pinning down" the undulating dunes. These straw checkerboards are the sand-barrier method of sand control that foreign media have dubbed the "Chinese Rubik's Cube."

"We're laying drip irrigation tape to water the Caragana in the straw grids, so they survive more easily." Bai Jinlian, who lives in Wudan Town, Ongniud Banner, is a sand-control worker in the Qibai Line desertification control project area. Like the other workers, Bai Jinlian is "fully equipped," wearing a headscarf, mask and sun-protective sleeves, yet the strong winds and intense sunlight still leave their skin deeply tanned.

Bai Jinlian is securing drip irrigation tape among the straw checkerboards.

In an interview with reporters, she and the other workers were focused on fastening black drip irrigation tape to wooden stakes, and strip by strip the black "lifelines," together with the straw checkerboards, gradually covered the entire dune.

The sand-barrier method of sand control uses materials such as brushwood, straw, branches, laths and cobbles to build barriers on the sand surface. It is an effective engineering measure for fixing sand by reducing wind speed and stabilizing the sand surface, and is mainly used to fix shifting and semi-shifting dunes. The straw checkerboard is an effective sand-control method developed by Chinese forestry workers through long-term exploration, and to date it has been widely applied in desertification control across China and around the world.

For many years, China has declared war on desertification in the spirit of the "foolish old man who moved the mountains," and the forest coverage rate in the Three-North project area has risen from 5.05% in 1977 to 13.84% at present. Many desertified areas have achieved the historic transformation of "greenery advancing and sand retreating."

In June 2023, China proposed an all-out effort to win the three landmark battles of the Three-North project, including the battle at the "Jizi Bend" of the Yellow River, the annihilation battles of the Horqin and Hunshandake sandy lands, and the defensive battle along the edge of the Hexi Corridor–Taklamakan Desert.

Inner Mongolia is the main battlefield for China's desertification control. "Two and a half" of the three landmark battles of the Three-North project are in Inner Mongolia, and more than 60% of the workload is in Inner Mongolia.

Ongniud Banner, located on the western edge of the Horqin Sandy Land, has 6.67 million mu of desertified land, accounting for 37.4% of its total land area, making it the area in Chifeng City with the most widespread sandy land, the largest area and the most severe desertification. For a long time, in the face of the most difficult parts of the sandy land to control (shifting and semi-shifting dunes), Ongniud Banner has also adopted the straw checkerboard method of sand control, and has opened 13 sand-crossing highways specifically for the construction of the "Chinese Rubik's Cube," with a total length of 398.5 kilometers, which not only solves the problem of transporting sand-control materials but also makes travel easier for herders.

Like Ongniud Banner, many areas in Inner Mongolia use the sand-barrier method of sand control to tackle the most severely desertified land. Aorun Sumu is located in the key battle zone of the fourth war zone of the Horqin Sandy Land annihilation battle in Aohan Banner, Chifeng City, where large-scale, continuous straw checkerboards also proclaim the determination of local sand-control workers.

"The saplings in the middle of these straw checkerboards can basically take root in two years and stabilize the shifting dunes, and then after another three to five years, shrubs and grass will gradually grow around the trees." Huo Mingchun, director of the Forest and Grassland Protection and Development Center of the Aohan Banner Forestry and Grassland Bureau, told reporters that after concentrated treatment and a period of rest and recuperation, the desertified land will basically become a sparse forest and grassland landscape in seven to eight years.

Under the effect of the straw checkerboards, patches of greenery gradually emerge from the desertified land, and the shifting dunes are stabilized.

Reporters saw that from the north of Aorun Sumu all the way south, as forest and grass coverage continued to increase, cattle and sheep reappeared among the local forests and grasslands.

As the main battlefield for Horqin Sandy Land control, Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in Tongliao City has planned and built the "Double Million Mu" comprehensive treatment project, with a concentrated treatment area of 2 million mu. Reporters saw that the Nugusitai project area is shaded by green trees and rich in water and grass, no longer the barren place it once was.

Chaoketu, head of the forestry workstation of Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in Tongliao City, said that the banner has built the project area into an ecological tourism scenic area integrating ecological sightseeing, entertainment and leisure, and sports and fitness. It has improved the forest species structure, planned and built economic forests, Chinese herbal medicine bases and forage bases, and cultivated ecological industries. Through land transfer, planting in place of breeding, ecological subsidies and incentives, and absorbing farmers and herders to participate in afforestation, tending and management, it has driven farmers and herders to increase their incomes, achieving both greening of the sandy land and higher incomes for farmers and herders.

The "Double Million Mu" comprehensive treatment project of the Horqin Sandy Land in Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner — today's Nugusitai is rich in water and grass.

To win the battle of the Three-North project, Inner Mongolia is accelerating desertification control. Since the beginning of this year, it has completed 6.04 million mu of desertification control. It is expected that by 2030, Inner Mongolia will have completed more than 11 million mu of comprehensive treatment of desertified land in the Horqin Sandy Land, with the treatment rate of treatable desertified land reaching over 85%, pushing the battle to achieve results at an early date.