Workers from the 19th Company of the 86th Regiment, Fifth Division, harvest and sort grapes (archive photo). The 86th Regiment's Crimson grape cultivation base is located in the Wutai Gobi Desert area, where high ground temperature accumulation, large temperature differences, and fewer pests and diseases have made the Crimson grapes increasingly renowned and well-regarded.

Fruit farmers in Shahe Town, Fifth Regiment, First Division, sort apples (archive photo). The Fifth Regiment is located on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, with abundant sunshine and large day-night temperature differences, providing unique advantages for fruit industry development. The apples produced here are juicy, sweet, crispy, and refreshing, highly favored by consumers.

At the greenhouse base of the 20th Company, 51st Regiment, Third Division, experts from the Third Division Agricultural Research Institute explain key technical points of Tang Wang ancient melon seedling cultivation to growers (archive photo). In recent years, the Third Division and Tumxuk City have continuously optimized agricultural industrial structure, applied and promoted new agricultural technologies, and built brands for agricultural products like Tang Wang ancient melon, establishing a path of industrialized, standardized, and large-scale agricultural development.

At the Fifth Company of the 103rd Regiment, Sixth Division, growers are busy harvesting melons (archive photo). The 103rd Regiment is located in the heart of the Gurbantunggut Desert. The unique climate, soil, and water conditions produce melons with golden color, fine netting, thin skin, thick flesh, and sweet, crispy texture, which are exported to Vietnam, Malaysia, and other countries.

Beneath our feet lies soft sandy soil; above ground flourish verdant orchards—this seemingly contradictory scene represents the ecological miracle written by Corps members in the Gobi Desert.

How did the former barren Gobi wasteland transform into an industrial oasis? How can desert economics with Corps characteristics be developed? How will the future Corps benefit from the Gobi? Recently, our multimedia team visited multiple regiment farms around desert areas to investigate these questions.

**Yesterday's Barren Desert, Today's Fragrant Fruits**

In midsummer, the apple cultivation base of the 225th Regiment, Fourteenth Division, is filled with fruit fragrance. This former "sand pit where even grabbed soil would hurt your hands" has now become fertile land rich with fruits. Ayitulanhan Wujiabili skillfully prunes branches while smiling, "Hard work brings great harvests—that's what makes us happiest." This simple statement voices the sentiments of all growers in the 225th Regiment. Last year, Ayitulanhan Wujiabili achieved a bumper harvest from her 11-acre apple orchard, earning a net income of 55,000 yuan.

Since 2020, the 225th Regiment has vigorously developed the fruit industry. Addressing challenges such as growers' reluctance to plant, lack of knowledge, and poor cultivation results, the regiment actively introduced modern agricultural enterprises and invited technical personnel from universities, agricultural research institutes, and forestry extension units to provide on-site guidance. The promotion of dwarf rootstock high-density planting technology has given apple orchard growers confidence.

"Dwarf rootstock high-density planting involves grafting apple varieties onto dwarfing rootstock, allowing 145 more fruit trees per acre compared to traditional orchards, while enabling mechanized operations and saving 60% of labor costs," explains Mao Wen, director of the Agricultural and Forestry Grassland Center of the 225th Regiment. This advanced planting model allows fruit trees to bear fruit earlier with higher yields, facilitates mechanized operations, and significantly reduces labor costs. Today, besides apples, specialty fruit cultivation including grapes, peaches, and prunes is thriving in the 225th Regiment, injecting new momentum into the regiment's economic development.

Turning attention to the 19th Company of the 51st Regiment, Third Division, on the northwestern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, vast melon fields have completed harvest. Tang Wang ancient melons, sweet as honey, fragrant as grass, and crisp as ice, reach dining tables nationwide through cold chain transportation.

Xu Xuebin, a teacher at Shihezi University's Southern Xinjiang Research Institute, explains that Tang Wang ancient melons originate from the alluvial plains along the lower reaches of the Yarkant River and Kashgar River. They are a variety of local Kukbairet melons, named after their main cultivation area in the ancient "Tang Wang City" region. During the prosperous period of the ancient Silk Road, when merchants passed through this area exhausted from travel, locals would entertain them with Tang Wang ancient melons, spreading the melons' reputation far and wide with the sound of camel bells.

Today's Tang Wang ancient melons have achieved stable production and benefits. To further promote the Tang Wang ancient melon brand and transform toward premium fruit, Shihezi University established a Southern Xinjiang Agricultural Technology Integration Demonstration Base in the Third Division and Tumxuk City, vigorously promoting scientific and efficient agricultural cultivation management methods to steadily improve fruit quality. Xu Xuebin explains: "The demonstration base uses refined management for Tang Wang ancient melon cultivation, integrating modern technologies such as double-film small arches and water-fertilizer integrated drip irrigation to ensure nutritional balance throughout the growth cycle, while using bagging and fruit cushioning methods to promote proper fruit shape and beautiful patterns." Next, Xu plans to collaborate with experts from Shihezi University's Food College to address Tang Wang ancient melon cold storage issues, aiming to create better economic benefits through staggered market entry.

**Fragrant Fruits Attract Visitors, Sweet Industry Promotes Income Growth**

On July 19, the 11th Melon Cultural Tourism Season launched at the 103rd Regiment, Sixth Division. After tasting "Xizhou Honey No. 25" melons on-site, Urumqi resident Wang Jiali exclaimed excitedly: "These melons are crisp, sweet, and fragrant—I'm buying over ten to take back to Urumqi!" Wang tells us that every melon season, she drives with her family to the 103rd Regiment to taste and purchase melons, then visits the Corps Educated Youth Memorial Hall, Xinqu Ancient City ruins, and the 10th Company Huangjialiang Reservoir, always returning with full satisfaction.

Caijiahu Town in the 103rd Regiment, situated on the southern edge of the Gurbantunggut Desert, has a melon cultivation history dating back to the late 1950s. With unique natural conditions, plus standardized cultivation, smart agricultural management, and branded operations, the 103rd Regiment has become the "Melon Capital of China" and Xinjiang's largest melon production base, with products exported to international markets.

Building on this foundation, the 103rd Regiment combines rural revitalization strategy implementation with S21 Awu Expressway geographical advantages, merging melon culture with Corps red culture. It integrates resources including the Corps Educated Youth Memorial Hall, Liangjian Regiment History Museum, Xinqu Ancient City ruins, 10th Company Huangjialiang Reservoir, and 14th Company desert tourism to develop comprehensive tourism projects including rural sightseeing, hiking adventures, and automotive rally racing.

On August 3, in the heated greenhouse winter jujube orchards of the 11th Regiment, First Division, plump fruits weigh down branches, telling sweet stories. "Originally, this area was entirely planted with Jun jujubes, but now we've not only grafted winter jujubes but also achieved complete greenhouse cultivation," reflects Lan Yan, a worker from the 11th Regiment's 10th Company and manager at Taklamakan Fruit Industry Co., Ltd. This regiment, located on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert alongside the sandy sea, has not only grown "golden fruits" in sandy soil but also attracted merchants from various regions to sign contracts and discuss cooperation, filling workers' and residents' "money bags."

"During fruit-bearing periods, we maintain quality standards by thinning fruits to five per branch and conduct final screening before harvest to ensure every winter jujube leaving the greenhouse meets quality standards," explains Liu Yonggang, technician at Alar Taklamakan Fruit Industry Co., Ltd.'s winter jujube base. Through such refined management, fruit sweetness stabilizes between 25-30, with per-acre yields far exceeding industry averages.

"We've cooperated with Alar Taklamakan Fruit Industry Co., Ltd. for eight years, precisely because of their stable product quality and output," says Zhu Qidong, Vice General Manager of Shenzhen Pagoda Group Co., Ltd.

Simultaneously, Alar Taklamakan Fruit Industry Co., Ltd. has driven over 20 households to engage in winter jujube industry, achieving average annual household income increases of 50,000 yuan, while providing numerous flexible employment opportunities for surrounding communities.

**Transforming Wasteland into Oasis, Benefiting from the Gobi**

On November 28, 2024, in Yutian County, Hotan Prefecture, with the final sandy area covered by tamarisk and rose seedlings, the 3,046-kilometer Taklamakan Desert edge-locking project successfully achieved closure. This major achievement demonstrates China's determination and capability in ecological governance while providing new ideas and opportunities for expanding agricultural development space.

When we turn our gaze to the vast Gobi Desert, we discover that once-uninhabited barren lands now teem with various thriving fruit trees.

Xinjiang concentrates over 60% of the nation's Gobi deserts and over 30% of saline-alkali lands. Southern Xinjiang enjoys 2,550 to 3,500 hours of annual sunshine with frost-free periods lasting 218 days, possessing unique advantages in light and heat resources. Numerous Corps regiment farms distributed around desert Gobi areas have sufficient light and heat resource advantages for developing desert fruit industries.

"Regiment farms on the edges of deserts like Taklamakan face strong winds, little rainfall, poor soil, and harsh environments. Through unrelenting efforts across generations of Corps members, we've successfully cultivated crops resistant to drought, heat, and sandstorms. Fruits like red dates, grapes, and melons accumulate more sugar due to asynchronous rain and heat patterns, dry air, fewer diseases, and large day-night temperature differences, resulting in exceptionally sweet taste and strong market competitiveness. Additionally, the Corps' high agricultural mechanization degree, good conditions for large-scale agricultural production and industrialized operations, and mature, promotable, replicable technical systems for grain, cotton, oil, and fruit cultivation represent significant advantages for the Corps to benefit from Gobi deserts," explains Jiang Jiyuan, Director of the Forestry and Horticulture Research Institute at Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Reclamation Sciences.

Meanwhile, benefiting from strong organizational advantages and mobilization capabilities, numerous Corps science and technology commissioners work year-round in fields, providing comprehensive technical support in 20 areas including water-fertilizer integration and saline-alkali land improvement, greatly enhancing technological content and production efficiency in Corps agriculture. Through cooperative organization leadership, the Corps effectively integrates workers and residents to achieve large-scale production and operation, further strengthening market competitiveness.

Taking Shihezi University as an example, since 2014, it has dispatched science and technology commissioners to various Corps divisions, cities, and local townships, establishing "precise matching, long-term service" mechanisms. Over more than 10 years, it has cumulatively dispatched over 11,000 person-times, providing agricultural science and technology services to 72 regiment farms (townships) and 142 companies (villages), organizing and implementing 1,840 science and technology service projects, promoting 431 new technologies, products, and equipment, and establishing 30 "Science and Technology Courtyards."

With technological assistance continuously improving agricultural product quantity and quality, and relying on strong organizational mobilization capabilities to ensure large-scale, standardized, and industrialized agricultural production, the Corps will surely paint an even more magnificent new picture of agricultural development on the vast desert Gobi in the tide of high-quality agricultural development in the new era.