Abstract: The Bao-Lan Railway passes through the Tenggar Desert for six times, totalling 40 km in length. Especislly in the Shapotou Area, the densely distributed huge sand dunes were pressing on towards the railway bed, the natural condition are very harsh, covered entirely by huge and crowded checkerboardshaped dunes. Therefore, at the time the Bao-Lan Railway line was opened to traffic important questions were how to stabilize the mobile sand dunes on both sides of the railway, how to protect the ensure the railway bed from being covered by shifting sands and how to ensure ther railway remains safe. For this purpose, the Shapotou Desert Research Station was established in the spring of 1956, and since then has been engaged in the studies on the stabilization of sand dunes with vegetation on permanent experimental plots in unirrigated natural conditions, supported by mechanical sand-control measures. As a result of 30 years of practical researches, the Station has initially resolved the following problems which interested the scientific circles and railway departments:the feasibility of sand stabilization by vegetation; the selection of suitable plant species for sand stabilization and their rational arrangement; the effectivenss of different vegetation patterns; and the principle of sand stabilization combined with sand blockage used for establishing the railway protection system. The solution to those problems not only has a significance for the control of the sand damage to the Bao-Lan Railway and provide a sand damage control pattern for railway construction in desert regions of northwest China in future, but also has a significance for the development of semi-desert area in China.