In the depths of the Kubuqi Desert, along the northern edge of Ordos in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a remarkable transformation is unfolding. What was once a dry, desolate riverbed can now be seen as shallow streams, weaving between banks of tidy checkerboard plots of grass and newly planted trees. It's the thriving face of the Heilaigou sand control project.

Backed by an investment of 29.75 million yuan ($4.14 million) and covering approximately 667 hectares, the project is expected to be completed by October.

"We're not simply stopping the desert spread," said Wang Shuangxi, a senior engineer with the forestry and grassland bureau of Dalad Banner. "We're reshaping both the environment and the economy that depends on it."

The project is part of a broader effort to manage the autonomous region's 10 seasonal flood gullies, known locally as kongdui, a Mongolian term meaning "mountain torrent gully". These channels slice across the Kubuqi Desert, feeding into the Yellow River. For most of the year, they're bone-dry. But when summer rains arrive, they can surge into violent torrents, dragging enormous volumes of sand and silt downstream.

At their worst, these gullies used to dump as much as 27.11 million metric tons of sediment annually into the Yellow River — more than 10 percent of its total sand — and were a major cause of riverbed siltation and industrial disruption.

In 1998, Xiliugou, a seasonal firstlevel tributary of the Yellow River, unleashed a flood that created a sand dam so massive that it blocked the Yellow River, buried water intake systems at Baotou Iron and Steel Group, and temporarily brought one of northern China's industrial hubs to a halt.

Authorities in Ordos have since adopted a region-specific approach, applying targeted treatment measures for each gully based on its geographical features and ecological challenges.