China's desert spring hits 20-year high in water level, revealing ecological progress

LANZHOU -- Crescent Spring, a famed desert oasis in Northwest China's Gansu province, has recorded its highest water level and largest surface area in over 20 years, signaling a major victory in ecological restoration efforts.

According to a report by the provincial geological environment monitoring institute released on Wednesday, the crescent-shaped oasis now stands at 3.8 meters deep and spans 2.12 hectares, a dramatic recovery from the late 1990s, when the average water level dropped below 1 meter and the surface area was reduced to just 0.17 hectares.

Nestled among the towering dunes of Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang, a key hub of the ancient Silk Road, Crescent Spring has been celebrated for at least 2,000 years as a natural marvel where shifting sands and clear waters coexist in harmonious balance, according to historical records.

The beautiful spring not only dazzles visitors but also sustains Dunhuang's fragile desert ecosystem, with groundwater from nearby rivers percolating through porous sands to offset evaporation.

Over the past decades, however, environmental changes and human activities have led to falling groundwater levels that pushed the spring to the brink of drying up.

The turning point came in 2011, when the State Council introduced a comprehensive plan for Dunhuang's water protection and ecological restoration, with a groundwater replenishment project for Crescent Spring being its key part.

Huang Wenming, the service center director of the Crescent Spring scenic area, explained that the project aims to enhance groundwater replenishment by constructing infiltration dams along the Dang River.

"By prolonging water retention time through 12 permeable dams, it raises the upstream water table to reverse the declining trend around Crescent Spring, ensuring this natural wonder remains forever vibrant," Huang said.

Thanks to these efforts, the average water level of the spring has risen steadily, surpassing 3 meters in 2021 before reaching a new peak this year.

In addition to restoring Crescent Spring, the project also supports the region's water storage, flood control and wetland development, contributing to improvements in the local ecosystem.

The spring is also safeguarded through scientific research. Using advanced techniques such as three-dimensional laser scanning, high-precision wind tunnel tests and numerical simulations based on actual terrain, teams from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have successfully unraveled the sand-spring coexistence mechanism and proposed targeted measures to protect the spring from shifting dunes.

An Zhishan, a senior engineer at NIEER, noted that protection efforts for Crescent Spring have evolved from ad-hoc emergency responses to long-term, standardized management, incorporating scientific monitoring, systematic regulation and routine conservation, which has yielded remarkable results.

Thanks to these concerted efforts, the local ecosystem has seen significant improvements, injecting new vitality into the tourism industry.

From January to June this year, the scenic area welcomed some 1.26 million visitors, up 3.2 percent year-on-year, according to the local culture and tourism bureau.