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More than 40 years of revegetation using mainly Artemisia ordosica, Hedysarum scoparium, and Caragana korshinskii at Shapotou Desert Experimental Research Station near Lanzhou has established a dwarf-shrub and herbaceous cover on the stabilized sand dunes. The evapotranspiration (ET) of the xerophyte dwarf-shrub A. ordosica plant vegetation was measured by the autoweighing lysimeter method during the growing seasons from 1990 to 1995, and 2002 on the southeast edge of the Tengger Desert at Shapotou, China. The study showed that the average ET rates were 0.88 mm d(-1), and they varied from 0.6 mm d(-1) to 1.31 mm d(-1) during the 7-year experimental period from 1990 to 1995, and 2002. The ratios of ET/Precipitation (P) varied from 69.8% to 120.9% with an average of 90.9%. The higher ET/P value in 1991 was associated with the properties of intra year distribution of rainfall events, and resulted in soil moisture depletion. The correlation between the accumulative P and the accumulative ET was quite high. For the years 1990, 1993, and 1995, the relationship between the accumulative ET and the accumulative P had a closed linear relationship, resulting from the higher intensity of monthly P exceeding 40% of the overall P during the growing season. Whatever the variation in the monthly P, statistics showed that the relationship between the accumulative P and ET could be expressed as an equation, ET=0.8003 P+5.8914, with a correlation coefficient of R-2=0.9035. Results suggest that in areas similar to Shapotou it is practical to establish an artificial protection belt using xerophytic shrubs.