Restoring Almost Disappearing Oasis

serenemaklong.blogspot.com

Located 6 km south of the city of Dunhuang in China's Gansu Province, this 2000-year-old oasis was in danger of disappearing beneath the dunes until the Chinese government stepped in to save it. A world heritage site, Yueyaquan or the Crescent Lake is a fresh water spring that has been shrinking rapidly due to desertification in the region before the local government began to restore the lake by refilling it. The tiny desert oasis was formerly a silk route hub and a trade centre between China and the West. The lake had shrunk from an average depth of 5 metres to less than a metre in the 1990s, but being a major tourist attraction, the government has recently taken steps to preserve the site and restore the depth of the lake to previous levels.