Lives of people in Hotan, NW China's Xinjiang (8)

A Uygur man sits on a wooden trestle in the southwestern part of the Taklamakan Desert in Hotan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 21, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Zhang Ruohan)

Stretching across Xinjiang, the 337,000-square-km Taklamakan Desert is the world's second-largest shifting sand desert and is known as the "sea of death" across China. In the Uygur language, its name means "go in, and you won't come out." Oases situated within the sprawling sands once served as important trading posts along the ancient Silk Road. In the desert’s southwest, close to Hotan city, the landmass used to be barren and unpopulated but has since been turned into a scenic area with abundant recreational facilities, such as camel riding and sand sledding, attracting curious tourists from afar to enjoy the exhilarating desert scenery.