BEIJING - People in Northern China are no strangers to choking dust-laden winds and seeing the Sun reduced to a hazy orange orb hanging obscured in a sand-tinted sky.

But even for these people used to the misery of the annual sandstorms, the spring of 2023 may be particularly memorable as the region was engulfed by the most in nearly a decade, sparking a reevaluation of how the nation fights to hold back the desert that covers a quarter of its landmass and is the source of the sand that fills the air.