Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, once plagued by sandstorms, is a key focus area in the battle against desertification under China's Three-North Project. After years of efforts, Aohan now boasts vast straw grids that have stabilized shifting sand dunes.

"This is a shrub species that grows on the top of sand dunes. Generally, the higher it is (on sand dunes), the worse the conditions become. Most tree species cannot survive up there," Dang Hongzhong, professor at the Institute of Great Green Wall and Chinese Academy of Forestry, introduced a local sand-fixing species called Salix gordejevii.

"It is very well suited to the Horqin Sandy Land, serving as a pioneer tree species on the shifting sands," he said.

Dang said that the Artemisia halodenfron and caragana species are also excellent native shrub species that help in fixing the sand.

"The grass and straw checks on the land is a sand control method known as the 'Chinese Rubik's Cube', or grass grids or straw grids," Dang said, adding that it's a common first step of fixing sand dunes.

To ensure that the sand can be fixed in the long term, engineering methods such as straw grids, and biological measures such as planting trees and shrubs, are usually combined, Dang said.

Aohan plans to fix 23,730 hectares of sandy land from 2024 to 2030, planting trees and grass on 3,030 hectares, fixing sand with engineering methods such as grass grids on 2,670 hectares, and constructing 14 sand-penetrating roads.