Badain Jaran Desert or Badan Jilin in Chinese is the third largest desert in China covering an area of 49,000 km2, which spans across the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Unlike the Gobi Desert we experienced in Mongolia, which was much flatter, the height of the dunes in Badain Jaran Desert averages at around 200 meters, with some reaching more than 500 meters. Despite the relative flatness of the Gobi Desert, Toyotoro still managed to get stuck, so you can only imagine how much trouble we had with this one. Dotted about Badain Jaran there are over 144 spring-fed lakes, even though there is less than 40mm of rainfall per year, and one of them provides sanctuary to a Tibetan-Buddhist temple. It was built in 1868 and due to its isolated location miraculously survived the Cultural Revolution unscathed, and a goal we were determined to get to with Toyotoro.