Going to the Gobi
One of the main reasons I like reading is because I like to be a bit of a know-it-all. Not in the sense of the expression that would make people sigh and roll their eyes; rather in the way that I would genuinely like to know something about everything. Mainly because it’s not a bad way to ensure you never end up in an awkward, dead-end conversation.
I was recently reading Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and I was delighted to learn what anybody with a vague knowledge of geography (not me!) probably knows:
The Gobi Desert is only about 1 000km from Beijing. What’s more, the winds in the desert can get so strong that they to blow sand all the way to the place where this massive city stands.
To give some context, The Bonesetter’s Daughter centres around Ruth, the Chinese-American daughter of Lu Ling, who had immigrated to the States in search of a better life. The novel is divided into two stories, one set in modern America and the other in early 20th century China, each of which focus on these two characters.
In one of Liu Ling’s chapters, she speaks about her little town, which is not far from Peking (now Beijing), and how it gets covered in a layer of sand and dust when the winds blow in the Gobi.
Amazing, no?
Apparently the winds can reach more than 140km/h and sandstorms in Beijing are not uncommon (there were storms as recently as 2017 and 2018 that made headlines). Although they are also blamed on increasing desertification due to the massive industrialisation in China. But that’s a story for another day.
Featured image by Breanna Galley on Unsplash