If only there was a desert that wasn’t too hot or too cold. Let’s try the Gobi in northern China. It’s called a semiarid desert. T at’s because it gets a little more rainfall than a hot, dry desert. It’s also a lot cooler. T e Gobi is the largest semiarid desert in the


world. You won’t have to worry about getting sand in your shoes, though. Rocks cover much of the Gobi. High winds blow over the rocks, sweeping them clean. It doesn’t rain much here, but it might snow.


Much of the Gobi sits high in the mountains. T e temperature can be quite cold. At times, snow covers the rocks.


Dark green desert grasses poke up through


the snow. As you walk along, you get a sense of how vast this desert is. And this desert is getting bigger. T e Gobi is being changed by a process


called desertifi cation. T is happens when a semiarid place gets drier. T en the desert grows bigger. Many things can cause this. Too much farming can cause it. Animals uprooting and eating all the plants can cause it, too. You stop a moment to get a better look at


this huge desert. Not far from where you are standing, you see a rare sight. An endangered snow leopard stands on a rock.


14 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


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