Beijing Evening Newspaper, May 20, 2000: Recently, along the Qinghai-Tibet and Qinghai-Kangding roads, one after another, trucks fully with full-load of local people, bound in haste from the east agricultural zone in Qinghai Province toward the west Qinghai Plateau, especially the upper Yellow and Yangtze Rivers.  These people take along digging tools such as shovels and picks, and living necessities as bed linen and tents. Most of them are to dig gold, and some go there for aweto. Many zoologists and environmentalists are deeply worrying about the situation. They appeal the government to forbid collecting gold and aweto in the region for a long-term and restore grasses by closing the region off, like the ways of restoring forests. 

Seven Sand-storms in China This Year

Since this spring, seven large-scale sand-storms came forth in the north China successively. Its frequency, intensity and scope are unusual in history record. In the cities invaded by sand-storm, the sky was so turbid that the visibility was quite low. For instance, when the fifth sand-storm stroke Beijing, the peak value of sand density monitored by the Beijing Environmental Protection Center in the Ding Mausoleum was more than 1000 mg/m3. This not only affected the local traffic, but also brought many inconvenience to people’s living. The flying sands made the outdoor people feel dyspnoea and eye-ache.  
Northwest China is the region where the sand-storm mostly occurs. Since the nineties, the average occurrence frequency is once per year. Recently its frequency climbs year by year. Sand-storm has already happened seven times this year. Its scope expands from Beijing to Yangtze drainage area, even Shanghai and Nanjing were so affected that the air quality is very bad and “mud rain” took place. Experts in the Center of Desertification Control, State Forestry Administration, deem that the frequently occurring of sand-storm is due to climate change, as well as the destroy of vegetation and desertification.

XINHUA Agency Report in May: A three-year survey conducted by the State Oceanic Agency indicates that there are already 200,000 km2 offing seawater has been polluted in China. The water quality in the area is under the standard National Grade 1, which has negative impact on the water quality of sea-fishery areas. 

　The Frequency of Offing Red-tide Increasing

XINHUA Agency Report in May:  It is reported in a recent statistics of the State Oceanic Administration that due to the aggravating pollution of nutrition salt and organic compounds year by year, the frequency of offing red-tide in China is increasing. There are more than 200 times of red-tide in total during last ten years, with an average of 20 per year.