Iron Dragons Crossing the Sand

Iron Dragons Crossing the Sand

Introduction The 55-kilometer stretch west of Yingshuiqiao Town in Zhongwei City lies on the southeastern edge of the vast Tengger Desert. Along this route, towering mobile sand dunes rise several meters to dozens of meters high. Standing atop these high dunes, you can see trains speeding by like iron dragons surging through the golden sea of sand, battling the wind and forging bravely ahead. This is one of the “New Eight Scenic Spots of Zhongwei” — “Iron Dragons Crossing the Sand.”

In the early 1950s, construction officially began on the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway. The section passing through Shapotou in Zhongwei had to cross a drifting sand area up to 70–80 meters to over 100 meters thick. Here, the barren yellow sand was highly mobile, with crisscrossing dunes of varying heights, forming an immense sea of sand. The railway was constantly at risk of being swallowed by the drifting sands.

To overcome this global challenge and create a miracle, the Ministry of Railways and the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized scientists, railway construction workers, and local residents to tackle the problem together and find a solution to this unprecedented issue. Through the joint efforts of experts and local communities, the famous “straw checkerboard” sand stabilization method was developed in practice. Over the following 40-plus years of sand control, this method was continuously refined, improved, and combined with mechanical and biological approaches to establish the optimal integrated model of manual, mechanical, and biological sand control. This led to the creation of the “Shapotou Sand Control Model,” featuring a unified system of five zones: high barriers to block sand, enclosed grass cultivation zones, sand barrier and vegetation zones, irrigated afforestation zones, and pebble firebreak zones. This effectively tamed the rampaging sand and became a miracle in the history of human desertification control.

Ningxia Zhongwei

Yingshuiqiao Town: Yingshuiqiao Town governs 3 neighborhood committees and 15 village committees: Yingxin, Yingtie, Lusheng; Yingshui Village, Heilin Village, Matou Village, Mingzhong Village, Shapotou Village, Mengjiawan Village, Changliushui Village, Shangtan Village, Xiatan Village, Yingpanshui Village, Niutan Village, Jiadao Village, Yangqu Village, Hetan Village, and Yaotan Village. … More details about Yingshuiqiao Town++