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Dunhuang in northwestern China's Gansu Province is known for its UNESCO World Heritage site, the Mogao Grottoes, or the Thousand Buddha Caves. In recent years the city has been fighting a battle against desertification. CRI reporter Natalie Thomas has visited town and its surrounding villages to see what is being done to deal with the situation. This is Dunhuang, at first glance it looks like your average medium sized Chinese town, but this is a settlement with a unique history. An ancient oasis town lying on the old silk road, Dunhuang was once bustling trading crossroads and today is a city of huge archaeological significance. However this oasis in the desert now finds itself slowly being claimed back by the surrounding dunes. Local officials are now fighting to prevent their town from suffering the same fate as similar towns like Loulan to the west which fell to the desert around 1500 years ago. We spoke to Liu Zhanying, the head of the local forestry Bureau to see what they are doing to deal with the situation. Historically Dunhuang has always been close to water, the surrounding areas had a lot of pastureland and water resources. During the Han dynasty you could row boats on the Shuluo river. But later on Dunhuang was affected by environmental change as a whole. The main way we have been fighting desertificaion is by strictly enforcing three policies: forbidding opening up land for farming, forbidding inward migration and forbidding digging wells. | 
