A vast area in the Gobi Desert will soon supply electricity for the country's industrial heartland, reports Cui Jia in the Changji Hui autonomous prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The fate of a strip of land in the far west of China about the size of Beijing was changed forever when a thick seam of coal was discovered beneath it. The unpopulated, arid land in the Gobi Desert in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is closely connected with the country's development because the central government is counting on it to fuel the economy in the years to come.

"There's enough coal under our feet to support China for another 100 years," said Xiao Renjun, director of the administrative committee of the Xinjiang Zhundong Economic and Technological Zone, as he stamped his foot on the ground at Zhundong, or the East Junggar Basin, about 200 kilometers northwest of the regional capital, Urumqi.