Significant progress in environmental protection has reshaped the Kubuqi Desert in Ordos, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Over the past few decades, the desert has retreated an average of 8.6 kilometers southward, with its closest edge now 4.8 km from the Yellow River. Sand inflow into the river has dropped by roughly 300 million metric tons in the last decade, while the annual sediment concentration has fallen from 4.55 kilograms of per cubic meter to 1.39 kg/m³, demonstrating the effectiveness of long-term desert control.

The Kubuqi Desert, China's seventh largest, stretches 400 km east to west and 40 km north to south. Its encroachment once posed severe threats to the Yellow River's southern banks, with sand inflow reaching 160 million tons in extreme years.

Since the 1950s and 1960s, Ordos has established a 420-km shelterbelt along the desert’s northern edge, averaging 3 km in width, to block northward sand movement. As of now, 348 km of the belt are forested and functional. With support from the sixth phase of the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, 43 km of new forest and 152,000 mu (10,133 hectares) of bare land restoration have been completed since 2023, while the remaining 29 km is expected to be finished by 2025.

Together with barrier zones and photovoltaic sand-control strips, the shelterbelt forms a robust ecological shield, effectively halting sand intrusion and ensuring the stability and safety of the Yellow River.