By Will James and Michelle Trauring

He Yan Zhong found a better way to raise trout – on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert in China’s arid Midwest.

A Shanghai-based entrepreneur and owner of Faitian Green Farm, he’s part of a Chinese solution to a global problem – a fish industry plagued by contamination.

The water is the key to He’s prototype trout farm outside Dunhuang. It’s routed from the looming Qilian Mountains – pure glacial water, free of the pollutants found in fish farms across the world. Because of the site’s remote desert location, there’s no risk of the contamination that goes hand-in-hand with industry.

The average modern fish farm is a biohazard. The creatures stew in their own waste, vulnerable to deadly fungus and injury due to crowding, requiring heaps of antibiotics pumped into the standing water.

The desert site is an experimental shot at a greener alternative. The fish live in lanes of rushing water, filtered by pools of reeds and algae, said Wang Yong Bing, the deputy director. The trout – rainbow and even golden – have room to swim and jump. The mountain water stays below 22 degrees Celsius, the trout’s natural environment. It keeps them lively and lean, whereas other farm fish might just mill and soak.

The founding of the site, one of hundreds owned by He, was fueled by demand for greener farms during a recent Chinese food safety crisis. But the idea to route water from the Qilian Mountains in the first place is nothing new. It came from founding revolutionary Zhou Enlai in the 1960s.

Before the site was developed, it was just part of the gravelly dunes, according to Yoichi Shimatsu, the project’s development consultant. Now, due to massive irrigation, it’s an oasis, complete with a lush grape farm.

The grape farm itself is part of a symbiotic cycle with the fish, Shimatsu said. The filtered waste water from the trout is used to moisten and fertilize the grapes’ soil. Eventually, the dead grape vines will be turned into charcoal, which will be used to filter out salt from the fishes’ habitat.

He’s green fish farm has been three years in the making and will be complete in another three, according to Wang. The vision is to someday draw in revenue with ecotourism – vineyard tours and fresh water fishing in the mountains. Wang said the farm will top off production at 70 tons of fish a year.

The goal is to spread this revolution to, first, He’s other farms along the Qilian Mountains, and then potentially to the world at large. According to Shimatsu, it could be applied in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Range.

Shimatsu plans to sell the fish to markets in Europe and along China’s eastern coast. The fish farm sits at the junction of three deserts along the ancient Silk Road, a robust trading route connecting East and West in centuries past.