Shortlisted
An Odyssey to Gobi Desert
Marymount Primary School, Annette Lam, 9
I
t’s so dark, so cold, so quiet here. I’ve no idea where I am,” I wondered when I woke up in
this sheer wideness. I cleared my sleepy vision as the dawn was falling, I saw a vast area
covered with bare rock and gravel, and a few sand dunes. “Is it a desert, not really, there are
cars travelling freely along…” I was in a great puzzle.
Off I started my journey out of curiosity. To my surprise, having travelled for some time, I found
some animals living there even though the environment seemed so harsh. I saw camels. ‘Camels’,
kind of animal, associated me to ‘desert’. Here, the state-of-the-art technology applies - by using the
Global Positioning System in my cellphone, I successfully located myself being somewhere between
the northern and northwestern China and southern Mongolia. Hence, I guessed if it was a desert in
the region of Northern China and Mongolia, it could only be the Gobi Desert.
As I was travelling on, I came across some other travelers. We had a common goal and interest
in unveiling the mystery of Gobi. We opened our dialogue with some interesting facts - Gobi is
a Mongolian word which means ‘waterless place’. Gobi is the largest desert region located in Asia
and is the fifth largest desert in the world. It covers an area of approximately 500,000 square
miles. Gobi is not covered with sand, but with bare rock and gravel, with shifting sands and salt
marshes at lower levels. That explains why I could find cars travelling there. Gobi is made up of
five distinct eco-regions, namely, the Eastern Gobi desert steppe, the Alashan Plateau semi-desert,
the Gobi Lakes Valley desert steppe, the Junggar Basin semi-desert and the Tian Shan range.
Gobi is very ancient and historical, around 50 million years old. Back in the oldest days of
the Mongol Empire, it was home to many important cities along the Silk Route. At that time,
merchants travelled along the Silk Route to reach a particular destination where they could do
their business by exchanging their merchandise and jewels.
Gobi is not only ‘mature’ but also ‘fascinating’. I fell in love with ‘it’ at my first glimpse.
Gobi is not comparable to other deserts because it belongs to our motherland, China, where my
ancestors were born. It is located in the continent, Asia, where I live.
How Gobi caught my eyes and held my breath -- I found Gobi fascinating as if it is an
arrogant, charming lady. She has her ‘cool’ facet because of her altitude, being situated at a height
of 3,000 – 5,000 feet above sea level. In the freezing winter, temperatures in Gobi could reach
as low as -40ºF. Can you imagine how she looks when the whole desert is blanketed with a sheet
of snow. It is so alluring that in a sense making her unrivalled! However, she could be ‘hot’ and
‘erotic’ in the blazing summer as the temperatures would rise up to 122ºF especially when the
wind speed gets up to 85 miles an hour. She then behaves like an unruly little girl.
She has her ‘attractive’ side. Apart from tourists and travelers, she does draw the attention of the
explorers and scientists for Gobi in herself has a lot of treasures. She was once the home to many
important cities along the Silk Route. She was once the cradle of archaeology’s significant findings -
the first dinosaur eggs were found in this region during the 1922-25 expeditions.
Geographically, Gobi spans two countries, sprawling from northern and northwestern China
into southern Mongolia. She inherits both the attributes of Chinese and Mongolian. Gobi, definitely,
has the characteristics of a Mongolian woman. She has exotic beauty, strong will and sense of
pride. When I sat still in serenity in the desert, I could savor her inner beauty. Not to mention her
“
