We drove from the grassland in inner Mongolia to the desert. It was the longest drive and at this point we are getting pretty tired of being on the road but everything is so far away.
This area is part of the greening of China initiative. See the paragraph at the end of this post.
We stayed in a container room. It was not our best accommodation but it was nice to walk right out on to the desert when I wanted without driving there. In the early morning I went out to get a sunrise shot but many clouds were in the horizon.
We set out to walk around when it was so quite warm.
Sunset pictures were taken from a viewing platform a half hour drive away and overlooking a very expensive 5 star accommodation.
There is a large solar panel farm on the desert. They are also greening the desert areas that have been overgrazed for centuries. From Time article:
Kubuqi, for one, boasts China’s largest single-stage solar farm, boasting 650,000 fixed and sun-tracking panels, which together channel 1,000 megawatts of electricity into the national grid — about half the power-generating capacity of the Hoover Dam. A team of 47 households are employed to maintain the panels. “Everyday each household can clean more than 3,000 panels using high pressure water jets,” says chief engineer Tian Junting. “And the run-off water feeds the crops that grow underneath.”
