China improves ecological environment in ancient Silk Road

时间：2007-06-08 05:54:03

（单词翻译:单击）

Chinanews, Lanzhou, June 7 – China is doing more planting to improve the ecological1 environment in Gansu's Hexi Corridor, which served as an important passageway on the Silk Road in ancient China.

 

Hexi Corridor extends 1,000 kilometers from east to west. In ancient China, it was a strategic thoroughfare leading to the Western Regions (a region which includes the present Xinjiang in China, parts of Central Asia and beyond). In most parts, the annual precipitation in Hexi Corridor was between 30-160 millimeters. However, about 2,000-3,000 millimeters of water are evaporated every year.

 

Since the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Chinese people had been doing farming in Hexi Corridor. After the foundation of New China in 1949, Hexi Corridor became an important food base for Gansu Province. Hexi Corridor accounts for 18% of the arable2 land in Gansu and its food production accounts for nearly one-third of the total food production in Gansu. In addition, 70% of the commodity grains in Gansu are produced there.

 

At present, the Gansu provincial3 government forbids people to carry out farming in Hexi Corridor in order to save the water resources. It is hoped that this measure can help improve the ecological environment there.

 

Minqin County lies in the eastern tip of Hexi Corridor. This is one of the places that witness the worst ecological deterioration4 in China. Desert land has encroached upon all the lakes there. Local government plans to close 3,000 wells and reduce the farmland by 400,000 mu (about 266 666 680 m2) from 2006 to 2010, both accounting5 for one-third of the total number of wells and farmland in the region. Local government plans to transfer 10,000 of residents from the sandy to the oasis6 region by 2010.

 

Meanwhile, measures are also taken in other areas in Hexi Corridor in order to improve the general ecological environment there. In Dunhuang, a city lying in the western tip of Hexi Corridor, local residents are forbidden to cultivate wasteland or dig wells. People in other regions are not allowed to settle there. In Zhangye city, which is located in the Heihe River valley, the government encourages local residents to save more water so that water might appear again in Juyanhai, a lake that sits in the lower reaches of the Heihe River and has already dried up.

 
 

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1 ecological IrRxX     
adj.生态的，生态学的
参考例句：
  • The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
  • Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.
2 arable vNuyi     
adj.可耕的，适合种植的
参考例句：
  • The terrain changed quickly from arable land to desert.那个地带很快就从耕地变成了沙漠。
  • Do you know how much arable land has been desolated?你知道什么每年有多少土地荒漠化吗？
3 provincial Nt8ye     
adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人
参考例句：
  • City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
  • Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。
4 deterioration yvvxj     
n.退化；恶化；变坏
参考例句：
  • Mental and physical deterioration both occur naturally with age. 随着年龄的增长，心智和体力自然衰退。
  • The car's bodywork was already showing signs of deterioration. 这辆车的车身已经显示出了劣化迹象。
5 accounting nzSzsY     
n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表
参考例句：
  • A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
  • There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。
6 oasis p5Kz0     
n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方
参考例句：
  • They stopped for the night at an oasis.他们在沙漠中的绿洲停下来过夜。
  • The town was an oasis of prosperity in a desert of poverty.该镇是贫穷荒漠中的一块繁荣的“绿洲”。

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