Beheaded willow trees lined the paths to the countryside.
Sand dunes sat motionless in the winter, under a thin layer of snow.
Here the desert is like a sleeping giant, tamed by the gentle touches of the grasses and low shrubs.
It is no longer the monster it once was.
– a first glimpse at Maowusu

Two giant tubs of preserved cabbage, the kind of tub that only exist in the distance memory of my childhood.
Two firewood heated beds, the locals call them kangs.
Two old persons, a sick man and a very wrinkled woman stood by a small stove, burning corn husks.
It was a typical house in the countryside.
Mud houses were replaced with brick blocks, featureless and dull.
Sheep are no longer allowed to roam the fragile land.
And people are left with no music to sing but only TV to watch.
– my first village stop

One next to another,
coal mines.
One after another,
big loaded trucks.
By the ruin of the ancient walls,
the development machine marches on, powering the civilization in the city, perhaps the light on my desk right now, and this computer.

In the old town, by the brightly painted drum tower, the dark-faced coal seller peddled hard on his tricycle.
His load must weigh a ton.
Around his nose, all dark.
He remined me of an old poem.
– my first walk through the old town of Yulin

The coal mines, the source of wealth and warmth for the city, is also collapsing the water table under this unique desert.

I need to go further. Fancy dinner with government officals in a smoke-filled room doesn’t inspire anything out of me.