A Chinese explorer has returned to his hometown in
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in triumph after completing a
Sino-British joint expedition walking across the Sahara Desert.
Yuan Guoying, 63, a researcher with the Environmental Protection
Institute of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, returned to Urumqi
last week as the first Chinese to walk across the Sahara.
Aiming to promote awareness about endangered wild camels, Yuan and
two UK scientists led a camel group and spent four months walking
across the desert from south to north.
Involving 15 people from seven countries and 38 camels, the
expedition offered key insight into the desert environment and its
creatures.
Mainly sponsored by the National Geographic magazine and the United Kingdom Royal Geographic
Society, the expedition also spread knowledge of wild camels
and raised funds for their protection, Yuan said.
Beginning in late October, the 1,429.22-mile-long expedition on the
former camel route started from Kukawa in northern Nigeria and went
through Niger to the final destination of Tripoli, the capital of
Libya.
"The expedition is finished but the campaign to protect wild camels
continues," Yuan said.
A
big event to promote the awareness of wild camels and to display
the result of the expedition will be held in Xinjiang in early
March, Yuan said.
Dr
John Hare, one of the UK explorers and also the founder of the
UK-based Wild
Camel Protection Foundation, will attend.
North Africa was once home to many one-humped camels but they
became extinct in the wild five or six centuries ago. Camels living
in Africa are all domestic ones.
Wild camels only live in China and Mongolia. There are less than
900 left in the world and they are more endangered than the giant
panda, Yuan said.
In
1906, Swiss explorer Hanns Vischer walked across the Sahara from
the north to the south. No one has attempted to walk across it
since.
As
an expert on deserts, Yuan has carried out a lot of research in
China's Taklimakan Desert, the second largest desert in the world
after the Sahara.
Yuan made a comparison between the Sahara and the Taklimakan in an
effort to find out why wild camels became extinct in Africa.
(China
Daily February 28, 2002)