Gobi Desert from their respective itineraries across the desert. Among the European explorers who contributed to early-20th-century understanding of the Gobi, the most important were the following: Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert () is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of Northern and Northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Taklamakan Desert to the west, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the southeast. The Gobi
Gurbantünggüt Desert but now has mostly dried out, and the Ailik Lake (), which receives water from the Baiyang River (which in its turn is replenished by the Irtysh–Karamay Canal). China National Highway 216 crosses the desert in the north-south direction, from Altay City to Ürümqi. China National Highway 217 and the Kuytun–Beitun Railway skirt it from the west and northwest. The Ürümqi–Dzungaria Railway reaches into the desert's southeastern corner, known locally as "Jiangjun Gobi" (将军戈壁, "General's Desert"). The climate of the area is temperate, but very continental. The desert's ecological environment is very fragile, and the impact of human activities on