  the desert of hami () is a section of the gobi desert in xinjiang, china that occupies the space between the tian shan system on the north and the nan-shan mountains on the south, and is connected on the west with the desert of lop. ==przhevalsky, 1879== this classic account is that of nikolai przhevalsky, who crossed the desert from hami (or khumul) to suchow in the summer of 1879. the middle of the desert rises into a plateau  across, which reaches an average elevation of  and a maximum elevation of . on its northern and southern borders it is overtopped by two divisions of the bey-san (pe-shan) mountains, which are isolated hills or groups of hills only a few hundred feet higher than the plateau. they are separated from the kuruk-tagh by a well-marked bay of the former central asian mediterranean (lop nur). between the northern division and the karlyk-tagh range (or east tian shan), there is an undulating barren plain,  in altitude and  from north to south, sloping downwards from both north and south towards the middle, where lies the oasis of hami (2,800&nbsp;ft). similarly, from the southern division of the bey-san, a second plain slopes down for  to the valley of the river bulunzir (or su-lai-ho), which comes out of china, from the south side of the great wall, and finally empties itself into the lake of kalachi (or kara-nor). from the bulunzir the same plain continues southwards at a level of  to the foot of the nan-shan mountains. the total breadth of the desert here, from north to south, is . its general character is that of an undulating plain, dotted over with occasional elevations of clay, which present the appearance of walls, table-topped mounds and broken towers (jardangs), the surface of the plain being strewn with gravel and destitute of vegetation. the swelling or undulating plain between these two ranges of the bey-san measures about  across and is traversed by several stretches of high ground having generally an east-west direction. ==futterer, 1896== karl josef futterer, who crossed the same desert twenty years after przhevalsky, agrees generally in his description of it, but supplements the account of the latter explorer with several particulars. he observes that the ranges in this part of the gobi are much worn down and wasted, like the kuruk-tagh farther west and the tablelands of southeast mongolia farther east, through the effects of century-long insolation, wind erosion, great and sudden changes of temperature, chemical action and occasional water erosion. vast areas towards the north consist 
Deserts_of_China Geography_of_Xinjiang