Mu Us Sandyland
The Mu Us Sandy Land (also known as the Maowusu Desert; 毛乌素沙漠/毛烏素沙漠 Máowūsù Shāmò or 毛乌素沙地/毛烏素沙地Máowūsù Shādì) is a desert in Central China. It is crossed by the Great Wall of China at the south-eastern end of the desert. The Mu Us Sandy Land forms the southern portion of the Ordos Desert and part of the Ordos Loop. The Wuding River drains the area, and then flows into the Yellow River.
Confusion exists about where the Ordos Desert begins and where the Mu Us Sandy Land ends. The northern portion of the Ordos Desert goes by another name—for example, a map in Julia Lovell's book The Great Wall: China Against the World 1000 BC–2000 AD shows the Ordos Desert only in the portion of Inner Mongolia, which lies south of the Yellow River. Several research papers cited below claim that the Mu Us Sandy Land includes part of Shaanxi and Gansu. A clear delineation of the area is still needed here, based on multiple sources.
The Mu Us Sandy Land of north central China lies at 37°30'–39°20'N,107°20'–111°30'E and covers 40,000 km2. As part of the Ordos Plateau, the elevation ranges from 1,000m to 1,300m (as low as 950m in some south-eastern valleys, and reaching between 1,400m to 1,600m in the north-western area). It is the only one of China's twelve sandy zones that is in the transition between a typical steppe and desert climate. The semi-arid continental climate subjects the soil to wind erosion.
As noted above, the Mu Us Sandy Land forms part of Ordos Plateau and includes part of the Loess Plateau alluvial plain with a concave floor. Exposed sands in the area come from Cretaceous red and grey sandstone. Quaternary sediments include a variety of sand types which are easily moved by the wind. In the south of the Great Wall (see below), sand dunes become more frequent due to damaged vegetation caused mostly by moving sand.
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