Published on : 27/07/2024

On July 27, 1958, the Baolan Railway (包蘭鐵路), connecting Baotou City in Inner Mongolia and Lanzhou City in Gansu, was completed and put into operation.

The Baolan Railway is China's first desert railway with a total length of 990 kilometres, of which 140 kilometres runs through the Tengger Desert (騰格里沙漠). As an important trunk line from North China to the Northwest, the Baolan Railway has played a significant role in accelerating the economic construction of Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Gansu.

It's worth mentioning that the initial operation of the Baolan Railway was severely affected by wind and sand. Later, staff of sand control developed the wheat straw grid sand fixation (麥草方格沙障) around the railway.

They made 1 metre × 1 metre squares on the surface of the flowing sand using wheat straw and rice straw, making it difficult for the sand to be blown by the wind, achieving the effect of sand-blocking and sand-fixing.

At the same time, they planted desert plants such as flower sticks, seed artemisia, and lemon stick on the squares, establishing a belt of drought-tolerant plants and creating a sand-blocking forest.

Over the past few decades, more than 67,000 hectares of straw barriers have been laid on the sand dune along the Baolan Railway, and over 140 million trees have been planted, making it a miracle in the history of global railway sand control.