Turpan Desert Botanical Garden

Turpan Desert Botanical Garden

Turpan's Desert Botanical Garden

The Turpan Desert Botanical Garden is affiliated with the Xinjiang Institute of Biology, Pedology and Desert Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is one of the 12 botanical gardens directly under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the only desert botanical garden in the arid desert region of Northwest China, and also the lowest-altitude botanical garden in the world. Located about 10 kilometers southeast of Turpan City, at an altitude of -95 to 76 meters, the garden site lies within a 6,000-hectare area of wind-eroded shifting sand between three townships in the heart of the Turpan Basin: Qiatekale, Aydingkol, and Yar. The area features extensive wind-eroded Yardang landforms, flat shifting sand dunes, and crescent-shaped dune formations, as well as the buried ruins of ancient cities and the world-renowned underground water conservancy project of arid regions—the Karez wells. This is the second-lowest land point on Earth, often referred to as the "Wind Warehouse" and the "Land of Fire." There are an average of 26.8 days per year with winds of force 8 or higher, reaching up to 68 days, with maximum wind speeds exceeding 40 meters per second. The area has the highest sand and wind mobility rate in China; the annual mean accumulated temperature is 13.9 degrees Celsius. The extreme maximum temperature reaches 47.62 degrees Celsius, and the extreme minimum is -28 degrees Celsius. In summer, sand surface temperatures can exceed 80 degrees Celsius. The annual average precipitation is 16.4 millimeters, while the annual evaporation is 2,837.8 millimeters; the average annual humidity is 41%; the annual sunshine duration is 3,049.5 hours, with a sunshine percentage of 68%; and the total annual solar radiation is 139.5 kilocalories per square centimeter.