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The green highway built across the Taklamakan Desert

HERE’S THE INTERESTING PART

Paving a highway straight through the barren heart of the Taklamakan Desert is easy, but preventing massive, shifting dunes from instantly swallowing it whole is an endless war. The Tarim Desert Highway survives solely because of a massive, 436-kilometer biological shield made of millions of drought-resistant shrubs, kept alive by workers pumping saline groundwater.

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The green highway built across the Taklamakan Desert
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