Peacocks are seen covered in bags as a protection of their plume during transportation, in Xiangyang, Hubei province, China April 12, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

An elderly man uses a fan to shade himself from the sun as he walks in a public park in Beijing, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. Thursday marks the Duanwu Festival, a public holiday in China celebrated with outdoor activities including dragon boat races. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

A man sits on top of a car as he is stranded on a flooded street in Tianjin, China, July 20, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Yueyaquan is a crescent-shaped lake in an oasis, 6 km south of the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province, China. It was named Yueyaquan in the Qing Dynasty. According to measurements made in 1960, the average depth of the lake was 4 to 5 meters, with a maximum depth of 7.5 metres In the following 40 years, the depth of the lake continually declined. In the early 1990s, its area had shrunk to only 5,500 m2 with an average depth of 0.9 meter (maximum 1.3 meter). In 2006, the local government with help of the central government started to fill the lake and restore its depth; its depth and size have been growing yearly since then. The lake and the surrounding deserts are very popular with tourists, who are offered camel and 4x4 rides.

Liu Yang, China's first female astronaut, waves during a departure ceremony at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, on June 16, 2012. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters via The Atlantic)

A Chinese woman wears a mask to protect from particles blown in during a sandstorm as she walks in the street on May 4, 2017 in Beijing, China. Sandstorms are common in northern China during the spring season and are caused when heavy winds from Mongolia in the north brings sand and pollutants that can blanket Chinese cities and cause air quality to deteriorate. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Students training to be flight attendants hold books on their heads, chopsticks in their mouths, and papers in between their knees, as they take part in a standing posture practice at a vocational school in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, China May 4, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A security personnel keeps watch before the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on March 8, 2022. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)