What is the name of the desert that spans parts of Mongolia and China?

The desert that spans parts of Mongolia and China is the Gobi Desert. It stretches across southern Mongolia and northern China, especially China’s Inner Mongolia region, forming one of the largest arid landscapes in East Asia.

The Gobi is unusual among famous deserts because much of its surface is bare rock, gravel, or hard-packed ground rather than deep sand. Its name comes from the Mongolian word “gov’,” meaning dryland; the related Chinese term “gēbì” is associated with rocky semi-desert terrain.

The desert covers approximately 1.295 million square kilometres and experiences striking temperature extremes. Its high-altitude, continental setting can bring freezing winter conditions, occasional snow, and very hot summers. The surrounding mountains and Siberian air masses help make it a cold desert rather than a conventional tropical one.

The Gobi is also famous for paleontology. Expeditions in the 1920s uncovered some of the first scientifically recognized dinosaur eggs, and the region has produced fossils of dinosaurs, early mammals, and other prehistoric animals. The Taklamakan is another major Chinese desert, but it lies farther west in the Tarim Basin.