Taklamakan Desert to regard the Taklamakan Desert as separate and independent from the Gobi Desert region to its east. The People's Republic of China has constructed two cross-desert highways. The Tarim Desert Highway links the cities of Hotan (on the southern edge) and Luntai (on the northern edge), and the Bayingol to Ruoqiang road crosses the desert to the east. In recent years, the desert has expanded in some areas, its sands enveloping farms and villages as a result of desertification. The Golmud-Korla Railway (presently, under construction; expected completion time, 2019) will cross the Taklamakan as well. Because it lies in the
Wedding Preparations in the Country Wedding Preparations in the Country "Wedding Preparations in the Country" (German: "Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande") is an incomplete work by Franz Kafka which depicts in great detail the journey of the groom, Raban, travelling to the country to meet his future wife, Betty. Written between 1907 and 1908, three fragments with missing pages have survived, and, as with most of Kafka's work, they were published after his death by his friend Max Brod. According to Brod, Kafka's intention was to complete the story as a novel. An English translation of the story appears in "The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka".