Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area is a nature reserve in Gobi desert, situated in the south-western part of Mongolia at the border with China. A similar reserve in a drier part of the Gobi exists further to the east - the Great Gobi A Strictly Protected Area. The reserve was established in 1975 and declared an International Biosphere Reserve in 1991. It comprises about 9000 km of desert steppe, arid mountains, deserts and semi deserts. Temperatures can fall to -40 °C in winter and rise to +40 °C in the summer. Average snow
Gobi Desert antelopes and wild camels, which frequent its few small, widely scattered oases. The vegetation, which is confined to these same relatively favoured spots, is of the scantiest and is mainly confined to bushes of saxaul "(Haloxylon)", "anabasis", reeds (kamish), tamarisks, poplars, and Ephedra. The Gobi had a long history of human habitation, mostly by nomadic peoples. By the early 20th century, the region was under the nominal control of Manchu-China, and inhabited mostly by Mongols, Uyghurs, and Kazakhs. The Gobi Desert as a whole was known only very imperfectly to outsiders, and information was confined to observations by individual travellers