The next month newspapers ran daily stories about desertification as armies of tree-planters were mobilized. The 5th Plenum of the Communist Party Central Committee, starting Oct. 9, has put the issue near the top of its agenda. Su was in the grass-stripped hills tending his hungry goats. He doesn't know much about the goings-on in Beijing anyway, having never traveled further than Fengning's county seat, about 25 kilometers away. Local workers cleared a path for the premier, yet just weeks later the road vanished reclaimed by the relentless desert.
Few people think of China as a desert nation, yet it is among the world's largest.
An estimated 110 million people suffer firsthand from the impacts of desertification and, by official reports, another 2,500 sq km turns to desert each year. This is nothing new, of course. Experts argue over the reasons and consequences, but all agree that Chinese deserts are on the move. Sand from the distant Gobi threatens even Beijing, which some scientists say could be silted over within a few years. Dunes forming just 70 km from the capital may be drifting south at 20-25 km a year.