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Chinese farmers have built a village on the northern edge of the vast Taklimakan Desert, known as the "sea of death" over the past few years. Most of the residents of the 70-household village near Aksu, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region moved here from Sichuan and Henan provinces, hoping to gain from the local government's new preferential policies for desert developers. Those who have contracted to open up the desert do not have to pay any fees related to the process for 10-20 years. The local government has also provided easy access to the village, building roads and canals, and set up power systems, said Zhang Bing, deputy head of the Aksu City Forest Bureau. The Taklimakan Desert is the largest desert in China and one of the largest in the world. Located in the center of the Tarim Basin south of Xinjiang's Tianshan Mountains, it is 1,000 kilometers from west to east and 400 kilometers from north to south, covering a total area of 327,000 square kilometers. To date, the villagers have turned 333 hectares of desert into cultivated land on which they grow crops, cotton and fruit. Lu Xiaoshun settled in the village last year with his wife and son. The family has built a house and planted windbreaks, alfalfa and pears on the 1.2-ha desert. They also raise cattle, pigs and a large flock of chickens. "Life here is not always so convenient -- we have to travel to Aksu to buy vegetables and meat. But we have high hopes for the future," Lu said. The village school has 200 pupils and eight teachers.