Mr. Xu, who is used to go to work by bicycle, said he was on the streets on March 20 last year. "Thick clouds of sand blown about by the strong wind meant I couldn't ride my bike and I had to push it," he recalled, adding that Beijing's weather is much better these days.

People don't even complain about the constant rain and snow blotting out spring sunshine since the unseasonal weather is actually helping to suppress sandstorms. Meteorologists also attribute the decrease in sandy conditions in north China this year mainly to weather factors.

Wang Yongguang, a senior engineer with the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), said that the increasing precipitation in last winter and this spring had effectively neutralized the droughts that had plagued the country's northern regions for many years.

"The rise of moisture content in local soils will curb the formation of sandstorms," Wang said.

According to sources from the Central Meteorological Station, rainy or snowy weather has swept across most areas of China since the beginning of this spring. Beijing alone has already had five rainfalls so far in March with the maximum precipitation up to a record 31 millimeters.

Up to now, only China's northwestern Gansu Province and northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have twice experienced dust clouds, which are much weaker than sandstorms.

Wang Yongguang predicted a warmer spring than in previous years, indicating a decline in cold airflows and strong winds. This will also help prevent sandstorms forming.

Actually, in mid-January this year, China's meteorological and forestry departments jointly predicted that the frequency of sandstorms would fall in 2003, raising the hopes of many Chinese keen to see an end to the climatic "nightmare".

But the shadow the massive sandstorm last March cast over people's lives can't be blown away so easily. It affected 1.4 million sq km of land and a population of 130 million in north China. The impact was even felt in central China's Hubei Province and east China's Shanghai Municipality.

Liu Tuo, an official in charge of desertification control with the State Forestry Administration (SFA), said though fewer sandstorms in 2003 was not mainly because of China's ecological efforts over many years, in the long term they would prove effective.

According to the SFA's monitoring, in China's northern areas where conservation projects have been launched, the vegetation coverage has increased by five to 15 percent over previous years, which discouraged the formation of sandstorms.

Since forestation is by far the most effective means to prevent or reduce their occurrence, China plans to curb desertification in10 years, by planting trees and preserving pastures in northern China.

However, experts also warn that the area of ecological restoration is still small compared with the vast deteriorating grassland, spreading desertified areas and the 1.1 million sq km of actual desert. There is still a long way to go to rein in sandstorms.

(People's Daily March 21, 2003)