2010 China drought and dust storms the drought, including a three-day tour in mid-March in Yunnan, including Luliang County, which had seen no rainfall since August, to promote water conservation, and another visit in early April 2010 to several Miao and Buyei Autonomous Prefectures in Guizhou, some of the worst-hit places where farming has been made impossible. Most provinces in South China affected by the drought were hit by a series of floods beginning in mid-May that ended most of the drought but also destroyed large areas of farmland. Strong dust storms from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia hit Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi,
Gobi Desert the Gobi Desert, with approximately 30 species distributed across its southern Mongolian border. The most common vegetation in the Gobi desert are shrubs adapted to drought. These shrubs included gray sparrow's saltwort ("Salsola passerina"), gray sagebrush, and low grasses such as needle grass and bridlegrass. Due to livestock grazing, the amount of shrubs in the desert has decreased. Several large nature reserves have been established in the Gobi, including Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Great Gobi A and Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area. The area is vulnerable to trampling by livestock and off-road vehicles (effects from human intervention are greater