International Education Home

Mission

Staff and Organization

International Events Calendar

Committees

Regional Center

Study Abroad

International Dateline Newsletter

Scholarships

What is the Study Abroad Photo Contest?



2005 3rd Place Photo

This image is copyrighted. It may not be downloaded or used without the permission of the photographer.

Eking Out a Living in the Gobi Desert
Jane Wu
Place: Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia
Date: August 2005

Fourteen mils south of Baotou, Inner Mongolia lies a gorge filled to the brim with sand dunes – the far end of the Gobi Desert. The highest dunes are about 300 feet above their own bases.

Known to the locals as a barren place to be avoided, the gorge has been in recent years turned into a tourist site. In an August afternoon in 2005, I was waiting for my turn for an exciting sand slide 300 feet down the hill. Suddenly I noticed men carrying sleds, climbing laboriously uphill. With backs bending low, sleds in their arms in an attempt to “garb” onto the shifting sand, each step was a struggle. This snapshot reflects what tourism meant to the natives in the impoverished regions in contemporary China. I did not take my sand slide in the end. In stead, I gave the money to two of the sled carriers.