Babusha Six Old Men Sand Control Memorial Hall 八步沙六老汉治沙纪念馆

About Babusha Six Old Men Sand Control Memorial Hall

Babusha forest farm lies on the southern edge of the Tengger Desert, 30 km from the Gulang county seat. In 1981 six villagers from Taizi village in Tumen town — Guo Chaoming, He Falin, Shi Man, Luo Yuankui, Cheng Hai and Zhang Runyuan, all close to fifty — set up the Babusha collective forest farm and took the lead in contracting to treat the sand. By 2000, after nearly twenty years, they had treated 75,000 mu, forming a windbreak 10 km north to south and 8 km east to west that spared nearly 100,000 mu of farmland from wind-blown sand. The sand-fixing plants at Babusha, as China Gansu Web's reporter saw them, include peashrub (柠条), Russian olive (沙枣), sweetvetch (花棒) and Siberian elm (白榆).

From 2000 Guo Chaoming's son Guo Wangang led a second generation — He Zhongqiang, Shi Yinshan, Luo Xingquan, Cheng Shengxue and Wang Zhipeng among them — to the three worst blow-sand points in the north of the county, where they treated 64,000 mu, closed 114,000 mu for forest regeneration and raised vegetation cover in the treated area above 60 per cent. In 2009 the farm set up a greening company, treated 46,000 mu along the Mahuangtang sand-control road and took on management of 156,000 mu of closed protection area. From 2016 a third generation, including Guo Wangang's nephew Guo Xi and the student Chen Shujun, treated 19,000 mu in the northern sand area over four years and established a 12,500 mu plantation of sacsaoul inoculated with cistanche on land transferred in a resettlement area.

By the time of China Gansu Web's report the three generations had treated a cumulative 217,000 mu and managed 376,000 mu of closed sand-fixation forest and grass. A national forestry and grassland administration report adds that the farm treated a further 71,700 mu from 2019 onwards and restored 100,000 mu of degraded forest, and that it set up a cooperative union to develop a desert economy, building six regional brands including 八步沙 beef and mutton, cistanche and goji; farm workers' average annual income rose from 30,000 yuan in 2018 to more than 70,000 yuan.

The memorial hall holds large numbers of photographs, objects, film, wax figures and other displays covering the three generations' work, which the China Gansu Web reporter describes as a summary of their campaign against the sand. A stele recording the Babusha sand-control afforestation (八步沙治沙造林碑记) stands at the site.

What to look for

• The photographs, objects, film, wax figures and other displays in the memorial hall
• The sand-fixing plants at Babusha — peashrub (柠条), Russian olive (沙枣), sweetvetch (花棒) and Siberian elm (白榆) among them
• The windbreak belt 10 km north to south and 8 km east to west that the first generation established
• The sacsaoul (梭梭) plantation inoculated with cistanche, 12,500 mu by the China Gansu Web report's figure
• The 八步沙治沙造林碑记 stele recording the afforestation work

Location & getting there

Getting to Babusha Six Old Men Sand Control Memorial Hall

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 八步沙六老汉治沙纪念馆 with 武威市 and 古浪县.