This is part III of A busy month behind the camera: Planes, trains, automobiles, donkeys, police cars and tuktuks, a travel log that details the month of April where I traveled through Xi’an (central China), Shanghai (East China) and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China (far North China).

This post brings you to Inner Mongolia for an article on desertification with China Daily reporter Daniel Chinoy, who I’ve worked with on a couple assignments now. In this part of China, degraded grasslands, nearby deserts and strong wings across what used to be rolling green hills, are some of the causes which create an effect called desertification. Sands are growing at such an alarming rate — they are making the land unfarmable and unlivable. Roughly 28 percent of China is now classified as desert. That’s an area of about 2.6 million square kilometers, or about seven times the size of Germany.

We followed Shanghai Roots & Shoots, Jane Goodall’s NGO, in a tree planting program. Trees help create a stable top soil which can stop the sands from spreading. The NGO’s “Million Tree Project” aims at both actual tree planting and adult and child education.

The most interesting part of the trip came when we decided to walk aimlessly into the dessert — in attempt to see for ourselves the spreading desert. The photo below is a 360 degree, 11 photo (242 megapixel) stitch of a high point I found in the desert. Click here or on the photo for a larger version. This is a bit confusing. The mound on the left side of the photo is the same mound on the right. However, the perspective on the right mound is facing South, while the perspective of the left mound is facing North. This enormous area was once completely covered with grass. Farmers lived here for thousands of years in a sustainable way. Now, you can see — this land is hardly farmable. However, if you look to the right hand side of the photo you can see five small silhouettes of people. These are Mongolian farmers.

Lessons from getting into a drinking
match with Mongolian farmers

I saw these farmers in the distance — and we decided to approach them to find out what they were doing out in the middle of nowhere. Turns out, this was their land. Growing up, their families farmed this land. They had herds of sheep and cattle that used to graze here. Coincidently, when we found them — they were also planting trees in attempt to gain their land back. These farmers were doing this independently under no government organization, program or NGO. They were sustenance farmers — only farming to live. Now, they are planting trees to live. However, the effects of tree planting are not quick. Ecologists with us said it might take over a decade to see the effects of their efforts.

The woman at the top of this post was one of these farmers. We spent the afternoon with the farmers watching them plant trees in sand. Since we had walked hours to get into the desert, the farmers offered us a ride back on their donkey cart, which than turned into an offer to come back to their house for some drinks. While debating if we should take up their offer of Mongolian hospitality, freelance photojournalist Sean Gallagher who was with us said with his most polite British accent, “well, we could go and have just one … it might be rude to say no.” These were Sean’s famous last sober words.

45 minutes later, we are in a stone house sitting at a table with 5 Mongols backed with pictures of Mao and Genghis Khan being taught how to pronounce the Mongolian word for “bottoms up.” Possibly spelled “Эрүүл мэндийн төлөө” and pronounced “Hundter,” this is not a friendly word like “cheers.” This word is for starting and finishing whatever is in your glass; it is far from a casual drinking idiom. In Chinese they say Gan bei 干杯 (“dry the cup”) and in English we might say “bottoms up.”

While this might not be a big deal if you were drinking beer, it is a big deal when you are drinking unlabeled, homemade Baijiu 白酒 served in a former vinegar bottle that would be filled up instantly if it were not full. If you’ve never had Baijiu, it tastes a little like gasoline mixed with Jägermeister and grappa. It is by far the most popular alcoholic drink in China and is pretty much everywhere in some form or another. If the above description didn’t make you want to throw up, drinking it surely will. Sean’s polite gesture to have one drink turned into about 10-15 from what we can all remember. Although this experience was very painful the next day, we did get some great stories out of the Mongolians about life in the desert today — and how different it was from their days growing up here.

The two lessons to take away from this hangover are:
1) Sometimes to get your story — you have to drink local booze and hope you don’t go blind.
2) No American or Englishman will ever out drink a Mongolian farmer.

Vanishing Grasslands: China’s Growing Sands

In four days in Inner Mongolia I took about 700 pictures and recorded about 20 GB worth of video. About 6 photos will be used next week in China Daily and a mixed media project will go to chinadaily.com.cn. You can see an early preview of the video here now as well as an extended edit of photos. This is a good example to show how much work we produce versus how much work is actually published. You can tell which photos I like or thought were the best by which ones appear in the video below. If your in China, and not using a VPN, the YouTube video won’t show up below. You can see the Quicktime version here).

I’ve just donated this media (photos and video) to Roots & Shoots. The video is also being turned into a 30 second spot ad for Roots & Shoots for television and iTouch media. So look out — you might be seeing a mini-version in Chinese cabs soon.