| Environmental cleanup of the Lop Nur lake region
in the Taklimakan desert
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Lop Nur is a group
of small, now seasonal salt lake sand marshes in the Taklimakan desert of
Xinjiang Province in western China.
Former water resources of the Lop Nur nurtured the kingdom of Loulan, an
ancient civilization that thrived along the Silk Road. Since 1934, archaeologists have excavated
along its shoreline the buried remains of settlements, hundreds of elaborately
built tombs, precious artifacts, as well as more than 30 well-preserved
mummies. Mobs of tourists and grave
robbers also frequent the region, leaving behind piles of garbage and damaging
the fragile environment.
Since 1999, Thin & High has been mobilizing teams of
volunteers to the remote Taklimakan desert to clean up the historic Lop Nur
lake region and to restore it to its natural beauty. Click here to watch a TV news report of our efforts, and click on the following links to read the project participants' reports:
Thin & High is the first organization in China to
undertake environmental cleanup actions.
Our pioneer effort in 1999 raised the overall awareness in the
government as well as in the society of the urgent need for environmental
protection in China.
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