Chinanews, Lanzhou, September 4 – Several experts came to Lanzhou on last August 31 to discuss the soil and water conservation in Dunhuang and Minqin of Gansu Province, where the eco-environment is severely deteriorating.The discussion is meant to find a solution to save the two places from the tragedy of Loulan, a famous ancient city on the ancient Silk Road that had been destroyed by sandstorms.Minqin is an oasis in Tengger, the 4th largest desert in China. However, with excessive development of ground water and long-time drought, Minqin is suffering from great degradation of vegetation and strengthening sandstorms. According to the last land survey, more than 22.5 million mu of land here have been desertified, accounting for 94.5% of its territory.Dunhuang is famous for its Mogao Grottos. It has also fallen victim to desertification. The increasing number of visitors to the Grottos has also posed great challenge to its fragile ecoenvironment. These days, the coverage of both vegetation and wetland in Dunhuang has dropped a great deal, and sandstorm and foehn wind have become common phenomena. The well-known Crescent Moon Spring has all but gone dry.Thus the Gansu provincial government is planning to invest 50 million yuan to build a sandbreak forest in Minqin before 2012 to protect the ecoenvrionment of the two places.