A report on Shaanxi, Yulin, Shaanxi and Ordos Desert

Yulin is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north, Shanxi to the east, and Ningxia to the west.

The other prefecture-level cities into which the province is divided are Ankang, Baoji, Hanzhong, Shangluo, Tongchuan, Weinan, Yan'an and Yulin.

To the north and northwest of the city lies the Ordos Desert, though the countryside is very green due to the many small shrubs which have been planted to slow the process of desertification.

Northern Shaanxi (or "Shaanbei") makes up the southeastern portion of the Ordos Basin and mainly comprises the two prefectural cities of Yulin and Yan'an on the northern Loess Plateau, demarcated from the Ordos Desert and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia's Ordos City by the Ming Great Wall.

The Ordos covers the southern section of Inner Mongolia, an Autonomous Region of China; Ningxia, an Autonomous Entity of China; and the Chinese Provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu.

Rare bird species also breed in the saline lakes of the Ordos, among them relict gulls (Larus relictus) breeding at Lake Hongjiannao; for this species the Ordos is home to the world's largest breeding colony.