The Guide To The Gobi Desert
Yew Chung International School - Primary Section, Ryan Yu, Non-Fiction: Group 2
T
he Gobi Desert is the fifth largest desert in the world. It is in Mongolia, but also parts of
North and North-western China.
It is over 1,600 kilometers long and 800 kilometers wide. Altogether, it is
approximately 1,280,000 square kilometers.
The Gobi Desert has several unexpected Chinese names, including sha-mo (sand desert) and
han-hal (dry sea). The word Gobi means “waterless place”.
It is a cold desert. It can get as cold as -40 degrees Fahrenheit and in summer, it can get as
hot as 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The extreme temperature can have rapid changes even within 24
hours. Instead of getting rain, it sometimes snows. The Gobi Desert’s average rainfall is less than
eight inches per year. It is made out of rocks and gravel.
Only 5% of the Gobi Desert is covered with sand dunes, but the Gobi Desert is still expanding
every day. Some people call the process desertification because the desert is taking over much
land with trees and plants that are fertile. People have been planting trees and plants in a line at
the edge of the Gobi Desert to stop the Gobi Desert’s expansion. This is called the Green Wall of
China. Wind speeds in the desert can get up to 85 miles per hour.
The Gobi Desert is the place where many plants, animals and even fossils are found. The plants
that grow in the Gobi Desert are wild onions and saltworts. However, the most important plant in
the desert is saxual trees. It is the only source of water available in the midst of the desert.
The animals that can be found include snow leopards, brown bears, wolves, camels and Gobi
Bears. Animals like black-tailed gazelles, Mongolian wild ass, sandplovers and jerboa can also be
found. The jerboa is the smallest animal in the Gobi Desert. It is like a small kangaroo, but can
leap a long way. They also have a long tail like a kangaroo that helps them keep their balance on
the rocks. Another animal is called the snow leopard. As the human population has grown in the
desert, animals like snow leopards die out. So now snow leopards are on the Endangered Species
list. Fossils can have been found on the land of the Gobi Desert, including the first dinosaur egg.
The people that live there now are mostly Mongolian people or Han Chinese. Before this time
was the nomadic people. Nomadic people are those that move around a lot, searching for better
places to stay. When their food runs out in one place, they have to find another place to find
food again. These people need to grow their own food to live. They most often grow tomatoes,
watermelon, cucumber, and peppers.
The Gobi Desert is a beautiful place to visit.
