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Academic Insights for the Thinking World

Xilin Gol, China

Xilin Gol, China

Area: 78,000 sqare miles (202,020 sq. km)
Elevation: 3,280 feet (1,000 m)

As I sat watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics on Sunday night, listening to the repetitive refrain of “Beijing Beijing, I Love Beijing,” I couldn’t help but think that in spite of all of the media attention heaped on China during the past few weeks, I hadn’t necessarily learned much more about the country or its surprising geography. Certainly nothing about the hinterlands beyond the populous Eastern cities. Take Inner Mongolia for instance. North of the capital, bordering the Great Wall, Xilin Gol is the largest area of pastoral land in China, encompassing vast stretches of grasslands, more than 20 rivers and 470 lakes. Here, Nomadic Mongol herders have raised sheep, goats, and horses in the region for centuries, earning a meager income by selling wool, milk, and meat. This expansive plateau is suffering from growing desertification however, and the Chinese government as well as UNESCO are working together to arrest grassland degeneration.


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Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.

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