Alar City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of fish farms on saline-alkali land
2. Various of life science professor Wei Jie helping fish farmer identify fish disease, talking with students, fish farmer Xia Chuanjiang
3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Xia Chuanjiang, fish farmer (starting with shot 2/ending with shot 4):
"We generally contact the professors promptly when we're feeding the fish or when the fish get sick, and they offer us timely help."
4. Various of sea bass
5. Various of Wei guiding students to do experiments, learn fishing facilities
6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Wei Jie, professor, College of Life Science and Technology, Tarim University (ending with shot 7):
"We can conduct experiments here, for example, experiments on salt-alkali tolerance, and the use of functional feeds in our saline-alkaline aquaculture."
7. Various of fish tanks
8. Aerial shots of fish farms on saline-alkali land
9. Various of fish, shrimps
10. Aerial shot of fishing boat catching fish

In Alar City on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in northwest China -- the largest desert in China and second largest in the world, farmers are harvesting sea bass from ponds filled with water so salty that it would kill most crops. The unlikely aquaculture project in Alar, in China's far western Xinjiang region, is the work of researchers at the Tarim University in the Uyghur autonomous region, who have spent years turning saline-alkaline groundwater into a commercial fishery.

Xia Chuanjiang began farming fish in Alar's saline waters last year. He called in plant pathologists this week after finding diseased and dead fish in his ponds during the peak sea bass selling season.

"We generally contact the professors promptly when we're feeding the fish or when the fish get sick, and they bring us timely help," Xia said.

Wei Jie, a professor at the Tarim University's College of Life Science and Technology, has led field research into saline-alkaline aquaculture since Alar began promoting the practice in 2018.

"We can conduct experiments here, for example, experiments on salt-alkali tolerance, and the use of functional feeds in our saline-alkaline aquaculture," Wei said.

Over the years, the researchers have successfully cultivated tilapia, Pacific white shrimp, sea bass and California bass in Alar's saline waters, advising more than 50 farming households and extending aquaculture across roughly 30,000 mu (about 2,000 hectares) of what was once idle land.

Local authorities hope the project will boost incomes in a remote region where fresh water is scarce and agriculture is constrained by salinity.