Re puted as a wonderful achievement of the world’s highway construction h istory, the Taklimakan Desert highway is now facing serious sand drift encroachment problems due to its 447-km-long passage of sand sea consist ing of crescent dunes, barchan chains, compound transverse dune ridges and co mplex megadunes. To solve some technical problems in the protection of the highway from sand drift encroachment, desert experts have been conductin g the theoretical and applied studies on sand movement laws; causes, severities and time-space differentiation of sand drift damages; and control ways in cluding mechanical, chemical and biological measures. In this paper the authors give an overall summary on the research contents and recent progress i n the control of sand drift damages in China and hold that the theoretica l research results and practices in the prevention of sand drift encr oachment on the cross-desert highway represent a breakthrough and has an epoch-making significance. Since the construction of protective forest along the cross-desert highway requires large amount of ground water, what will be its environmental consequence and whether it can effectiv ely halt sand drift encroachment on the highway forever are the questions to be studied urgently. Re puted as a wonderful achievement of the world’s highway construction h istory, the Taklimakan Desert highway is now facing serious sand drift encroachment problems due to its 447-km-long passage of sand building consists of crescent dunes, barchan chains, compound transverse dune ridges and co mplex megadunes. To solve some technical problems in the protection of the highway from sand drift encroachment, desert experts have been conduct in the the theoretical and applied studies on sand movement laws; causes, severities and time-space differentiation of sand drift damages ; and control ways in cluding mechanical, chemical and biological measures. In this paper the authors give an overall summary on the research contents and recent progress in the control of sand drift damages in China and hold that the theoretica l research results and practices in the prevention of sand drift encr oachment on the cross-desert highway represent a breakthrough and has an epoch-making significance. Since t he construction of protective forest along the cross-desert highway requires large amount of ground water, what will be its environmental consequence and whether it can effectiv ely halt sand drift encroachment on the highway forever are the questions to be studied urgently.