Heavy snow may help improve environment around China's largest desert

The heaviest and longest snow on record has caused tremendous difficulties in people's lives, but it may help the forestation on the southern edge of Takla Makan Desert, China's largest desert.

The snow since mid-January has covered a remarkable area of 750,000 square kilometers in the south of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Nearly 60 percent of the area has been covered with over 10-centimeter-deep snow until early February.