Badain Jaran Desert
- UNESCO natural beauty
Interesting facts
- UNESCO lists 144 lakes between the dunes, the highest concentration of inter-dune lakes known, coloured by differing salinity and microbes.
- The World Heritage property alone covers about 7,260 square kilometres, surrounded by an even larger buffer zone.
- In the biggest megadunes only the surface sand moves; the inner layers have been compacted so long that they behave almost like sandstone.
- The shallow lakes of the south-east are long and usually under 2 m deep, while oval lakes elsewhere reach about 15 m in depth.
- Algae, brine shrimp and mineral crusts make some lakes change colour through the year, and the saltiest are rimmed with white salt.
- Booming sand of this kind is known from only about 35 other deserts and beaches in the world.
- Drawing a hand slowly through the dry slope of a booming dune can make the sand emit short, pulsing burping sounds.
- The Ruo Shui, whose name means weak water, is the only river to cross the desert and has built an alluvial plain within it.
- Near the desert's north-western edge lie the ruins of Khara-Khoto, a Tangut city that was abandoned after Ming armies took it in 1372.
- Strong north-westerly winds blow for more than 60 days in winter and spring, at times reaching force 8 on the Beaufort scale.
Why it is worth it
The Badain Jaran is a desert of superlatives in the far west of Inner Mongolia, spreading over some 49,000 km² of the Alxa Plateau at around 1,200 m above sea level and reaching into Gansu and Ningxia. It holds the tallest stationary dunes on Earth: many of its megadunes stand about 400 m above their bases, and the highest, Bilutu Peak, reaches about 500 m. Yet the desert is best known for something less expected. Between the sand mountains lie more than 140 small lakes, and the Mongolian name of the desert is usually explained as a reference to its mysterious lakes.
The combination is what makes the landscape so extraordinary: a steep golden dune falling straight into a pool of blue, green or rust-red water, . Rainfall here is only about 50–60 mm a year, and evaporation is many times greater, so the lakes are fed by groundwater whose origin scientists still debate. Their chemistry varies enormously, from almost fresh to brines of more than 330 grams of salt per litre, so that lakes a short walk apart can be entirely different in character. Some slopes also sing: in dry summer conditions the sand sliding down steep leeward faces produces a low booming rumble that can exceed 105 decibels.
Human traces are few and all the more affecting for it. Beside one of the lakes stands the Badain Jaran Temple, a small Tibetan Buddhist monastery built in 1868, whose isolation spared it during the Cultural Revolution. In 2024 the desert was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "Badain Jaran Desert – Towers of Sand and Lakes", for both its beauty and the geological processes it displays.
Getting there
The base for visits is Ehen Hudag (Badain Jaran Town), the seat of Alxa Right Banner, about 106 km away in a straight line; the edge of the desert is roughly an hour's drive from the town. The nearest large airport with regular service is Jinchang Jinchuan (JIC), about 170 km away; Alxa Right Banner also has a small local airport, and Zhangye in Gansu is a common gateway, with coaches to the town. Travel inside the dune field is by professionally driven four-wheel-drive vehicles hired in the town; private cars do not go into the desert.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Badain Jaran Desert is a desert in China which spans the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. It covers an area of 49,000 square kilometers. By size it is the third largest desert in China.
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