Xinjiang's oasis area expands greatly

The oasis area in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in west China, has increased to 70,700 square kilometers now from 40,000 square kilometers in 1950.

Xinjiang is the province which has been most badly suffered from sand blown by wind across China. It also has the largest desertification area.

Over the past five years, Xinjiang's area of artificial afforestation on plain amounted to 25 million mu and the forest coverage rose to 2.94 percent from 1.92 percent in 2000.

By People's Daily Online