Maowusu Sandy Land
Maowusu Sandy Land is situated in the belt of dry grass land, Inner Mongolia. The natural condition there is different from those in sandy desert in Northwest of China. With an attitude of 1100 -1500 m, its total area is 38,935 square km, which is about 3.6% of the total area of desert in China. Maowusu is the meaning of bad water in Mongolian.
The pastoral industry was very developed in this area long long ago. And the fixed dunes occupied most of the area. During 5th century A.D, the south part of Maowusu was the political and economic center of Hun nationality, which had large area of grassland and lakes. From Tang Dynasty, there began to have deposits there and formed desert in Qing Dynasty.
On the boundary of Maowusu Sandy Land, there stands Yulin City, a historical city with long history and colorful cultures. It has abundant natural tourism resources. In and around the city, the historical relics are scattered. There are more than 100 ancient buildings, temples and castles. Now it is called the famous city on Maowusu Sandy Land, which is an ideal place for tourism.
Formation of Sandy LandFormation of sandy land has its own factors in natural conditions and human activities. As the natural conditions are concerned, the rolling hills in this area are mainly composed of horizontal rock layer of Cretaceous purplish red and Jurassic grayish green sandstone, and for that reason, various types of deposit and eluvial of Quaternary period in this area all possess of sandy characteristics, and the deposits along the river banks are of medium sized fine sands and silt.
Driving wind is increasing. For a long time, the irrational ploughing and over-grazing had effected the natural environment seriously. As historical documents and serial photographs show us, there are more than ten ruining old cities distributed over from southwest to middle part of this area. During the sixteenth century when for long historical years, the Great Wall was being rebuilt, there was evidence that most part of this area had no flowing sand. But now, these very old cities and part of the Great Wall were deeply buried under the following sand.
Flourished VegetationSince the launch of the project of banning grazing and "giving up grain for green grass", the vegetation in the Maowusu Sandy Land has flourished. Results show that there were altogether 1,106 higher vegetable species in the Maowusu Sandy Land, which belonged to 98 families and 420 genera. Among them the dominant one was sandy vegetation.