Taklimakan Desert in xinjiang
3 min readThe Beauty of Desolation and Grandness-Deserts in Xinjiang The total area of deserts in China is about712,900km2, mainly distributing in nine provinces in the northwest and north of China, among which, Xinjiang has a desert area of 430,400km, accounting for 60% of the total area ofdeserts in China. Three deserts are listed among the Top Ten Deserts in China, namely the Taklimakan Desert, Gurbantnggt Desert, and Kumtag Desert.
Taklimakan Desert
Taklimakan Desertis located in central Tarim Basin, with an area of 337,600kmof about 1,000km long from east to west and 400km wide from north to south, which is the largest desert in China, and the world’s second largest desert second only to the Sahara Desert in Africa.
“Taklimakan” means “one cannot get out if entering into it” in the Uygur language, and it is also called the “sea of death”. Affected by the prevailing wind directions of west wind and northeast wind, the wind-sand activities in Taklimakan Desert are frequent and violent: at the southern edge, the sand wind days are more than 100 days per year, resulting in the continuous southward of the desert; it is calculated from the ruins of Yutouzhou City that the desert has moved southward for tens to hundreds of kilometers since 1,000 years ago.
The big and magnificent moving dunes in different shapes account for more than 85% of all dunes in the desert. The sand dunes inside the desert are generally 50-80 m high, and some can reach over 150m; the dunes are complicated in shapes, containing almost all the dune types in deserts of China; some shines like pyramids, some like the Great Wall, some like hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and some like smoke towers with smoke signals rising on all sides, all of which are shocking. There are two distinct red and white large sand dunes in the hinterland of the desert, named as “Holy Tomb Mountain”, which are formed by the reveal of sedimentary rocks composed of red sandstone and gypsum. The aeolian mushroom on the “Holy Tomb Mountain”is strange and spectacular of about 5m high, and more than 10 people can be accommoda under the huge canopy. During the day, the sun shines fiercely, making the sand dazzling and the temperature on the sand surface can reach 70C-80C. The strong evaporation makes the scenery dim. Visitors can often see the “mirage” in distant place. The compound sand ridges in the desert can be more than 10km long.
It is extremely dry and lack of vegetation in the desert, and it can be called a veritable “sea of death”. However, according to the scientific investigation, the precipitation in the desert hinterland is slightly more than that of the edge of the desert, with an annual precipitation of 20-80 mm. Under the desert, there is abundant groundwater, with a reserve of more than 8 trillion m3, and degree of mineralization of 3-7 g/1. There are dense populus euphratica forests and tamarix chinensis shrubs along the Yarkand River,Tarim River, Hetian River and Cheerchen River around the desert, forming several”Green islands in the sand sea”. There is also abundant oil and other mineral resources under the sand layer, and now, the “sea of death”has become the new home for oil men.
Taklimakan Desert is rich in unique natural scenes; it is surrounded by towering mountains and snow-capped peaks, and Tarim River and its tributaries flow freely at the edge of the desert. On the oases around the boundless desert, farmlands are well arranged, and they are the grain and cotton base and melons and fruits towns in Xinjiang; the ruins of ancient cities buried in the desert add more historical sense; the desert, caravans, and sunset form an oil painting of the Silk Road that will never fade. The tall and straight populus diversifolia trees standing at the edge of the desert seem to tell the tenacity of life.
