A farmer walks through Long Bao Shan village which is under threat from encroaching desert...

A farmer walks through Long Bao Shan village which is under threat from encroaching desert (L-background) in Hebei province, 70kms northwest of Beijing, April 15. The environment around the area is deteriorating so much that farmlands and small mountains have been buried under giant piles of sand. Official statistics show that over the past several decades, desertification in the country has been getting worse. Before the 1980s, China's desertified land expanded at an average rate of 1,560 square kilometers a year. The figure rose to 2,100 square kilometers a year in the 1980s and to 2,460 square kilometers in 1994. Sandstorms that swept much of northern and eastern China in the past few weeks have set off alarm concerning the serious deterioration of the environment.