Is China’s climate returning to that of Tang dynasty golden age? Experts warn of a trap

Higher rainfall across arid Ningxia has invited comparison to prosperous Tang dynasty ‘warm period’, but scientists offer a note of caution

In China’s arid northwest, local state media in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region are celebrating a surge of rainfall in an area that usually averages 300mm (about 12 inches) per year.

The rain belt moving northwards would bring “climate dividends”, the Ningxia Broadcasting News Centre said last month, promising that “loess soil will turn green and farming area will expand”.

Reporting on a northward march of the 400mm precipitation line – the vital boundary that separates China’s arid grazing lands from its humid, agricultural heartland based on annual rainfall – it framed the shift as a “heavenly fortune”.

“The warming and greening of northwest China is not accidental but the restart of a millennia-long climate cycle,” the broadcaster wrote on social media on July 21.

“As the rain belt moves northwards, the north is experiencing a warm and humid climate comparable to the prosperous Tang dynasty (618AD to 907AD). Ningxia is the most vivid example of this benefit.”