For Abdi Muktar, China was pretty much about kung fu stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li, before he learned what the oriental country had done to control desertification this summer.

It took the Ethiopian man nearly 12 hours flying from his homeland to China. The following eight-week training on desert control totally enriched his knowledge about China and proved his long journey, according to himself, worthwhile.

"I love here so much, and if possible, I'd like to have my master's degree in China," said the 24-year-old.

Muktar works for Land Resources Management and Environmental Protection Department of the Ethiopian government. Together with 22 people from 10 African countries, he learned desertification-combating techniques like sand fixation, water-saving irrigation and greenhouse planting, and visited an International Horticultural Expo held in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

"We need such kind of training because it strengthened our awareness in desert control, and we will spread the technologies we learn in China back home," he said, adding that he had started writing proposals on implementing the learned techniques.

Sponsored by China's Ministry of Commerce, the training program has been held annually since 1993. More than 700 people from 63 developing countries have participated in the training, said Liu Shizeng, head of the Gansu Desert Control Research Institute (GDCRI).

The GDCRI, the organizer, invited experts and scholars from China, the United States, Israel, and Australia to give lectures. "It's an international platform for desert control exchange," said Liu.

One third of the African continent is occupied by deserts, including the Sahara, the largest desert in the world. In Ethiopia, the coverage of desert takes one quarter of the country's territory, threatening local agricultural production.

Some other African countries, such as Lesotho and Zambia, though having no desert at present, are suffering from severe land desertification.

"We need to learn how to combat desertification before our land becomes desert," said 36-year-old Itumeleng Bulane from Lesotho, who works for the ministry of forestry and land reclamation.

In 2009, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Egypt that China would train 20,000 professionals for Africa over the next three years. Apart from training on desertification control, Gansu Province in northwest China also organized training on solar appliance, wind power and rainwater saving and utilization.

"The awareness of environmental protection is widely stressed during the training, and talented professionals would spread the awareness and techniques to the land of Africa," Liu said.

Like Africa, China is also suffering from desert and desertification. According to statistics from the State Forestry Administration, China has a desert area of 2.6 million square kilometers, which accounts for 27 percent of its total land area.

Desertified land, which was not originally desert but has become barren due to constant water shortage, overload of land resources and excessive exploitation, makes up more than half of the total desert area.

Desert expands and forces people to relocate. Sandstorm torments in the spring. Although China is pouring a large sum of money on struggling with desert, the desertification area is still spreading.

"We want to disseminate what we have learned from our own lessons, so that others can avoid suffering as we are facing now," said Fang Etian, deputy chief of GDCRI and one of the instructors for the training.