China's Dust Bowl

Photograph by James Whitlow Delano

Last ones standing
Outside the home of the last remaining family in the oasis of Alashan Banner, Inner Mongolia. For eight generations, Mage-erle's family has lived in this mud-brick house, on a grassland ringed by a sea of sand. Plans are afoot, she says, to build a desert golf resort on what remains of her pastureland.

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