Kubuqi Desert 库布齐沙漠

About Kubuqi Desert

Chains of mobile dunes, areas of stabilised sand and planted vegetation create a varied landscape rather than one continuous bare surface. Xiangshawan, at the desert's eastern end, offers a managed introduction to its high dunes. Using that established visitor area makes a practical first encounter with Kubuqi's wind-shaped sand, while longer drives into other sectors require separate planning and suitable local support.

Kubuqi was grassland during the Qing dynasty; from the late Qing onward, prolonged conflict, excessive land reclamation and overgrazing turned it into desert. In 1988 Wang Wenbiao (王文彪), a former state-enterprise employee from Hangjin Banner (杭锦旗), began large-scale afforestation of the desert through the company he founded, the Elion Resources Group (亿利资源集团). By 2015, 27 years of management had greened about one third of the desert, an area of 6,000 square kilometers, and brought a further 11,000 square kilometers of desertification under control; sandstorm days fell by 95 percent and annual rainfall rose from under 70 millimeters to over 300 millimeters.

The name Kubuqi, from Mongolian, means the string of a bow. The desert covers 18,600 square kilometers between the Hetao plains and the Loess Plateau, bordered by the Yellow River on its west, north and east sides and by the Mu Us Desert (毛乌素沙漠) of the southern Ordos Plateau to the south; the terrain is higher in the south than the north. It is China's seventh-largest desert and the one closest to Beijing, made up mostly of mobile dunes arranged in dune chains and lattice patterns.

What to look for

• The dune ridges and fine wind-shaped sand at the eastern desert margin.
• The contrast between mobile sand and stabilised, vegetated ground near established approaches.

Location & getting there

Getting to Kubuqi Desert

For the introductory route here, use Xiangshawan's visitor reception area in Dalad Banner, between Baotou and central Ordos.

• Kubuqi covers a large region; a general desert map point is not an independent driving route or trailhead.