TRAVEL

Turpan, On the Ground and Underground

Turpan Basin, lying 182 kilometers west of Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is the second lowest points in the world, second only to the Death Sea in Jordan, that is 392 meter below sea level. Aydingkol Lake, where the surface of water being at 155 meters below sea level, is the lowest point in the area. It is also known as the “hot polar” and “flaming land” in China. Annually, there are more than 100 days during which the average temperature is over 35˚Celsius. The recorded highest temperature was 49.6˚Celsius, and the highest temperature of the earth’s surface was recorded 83.3˚Celsius in July 13, 1975. For many years, the average annual waterfall has maintained only 16 millimeters. Because of this, it is also known as a “dry polar” in China. Karez is a unique underground irrigation system that brings underground water to the surface to irrigate hundreds of thousands acres of farmland in the oases in the basin. There are altogether more than 1,200 karez in the basin totaling 5,000 kilometers in length. Karez is one of the three greatest ancient projects in China, the other two being the Great Wall and the Grand Canal.

Turpan is often compared to a bird with two heads, one being on the ground, and the other underground.

There is a story about the bird in Buddhist sutra. Embroideries with the bird image were unearthed from the Astana Ancient Tombs in Turpan in 1975.

Being such a bird, Turpan has got two heads respectively living in its own worlds, with the underground lives in history, and the one on the ground lives in reality. But the two are an inseparable integrity. To know Turpan, you’ve got to know its past and its present.

A Creation of Nature and Man

Nature has made Turpan a place 154 meters below sea level. It endows Turpan with only 16 millimeters rainfall annually, but demands the place to vaporize 3,000 millimeters. To exaggerate the heat of the “flaming land ”, it erects the Flaming Mountains in the center of the basin. Though not very tall, it is covered with pleats in the shape of “tongues of flames”, glowing red all over. Under the scorching sun, the evaporation seems to make the “tongues of flames” blaze.

People in Turpan share the experience of burying an uncooked egg in sand under the scorching sun and founding it is done in fifteen minutes. Walking in the sand for a short moment, you will find the sole of your leather shoes transformed. No wonder there was a joke in ancient times telling of local county magistrates sitting naked in a water vat handling official business. In summer, every household shuts its doors and windows during the daytime and the whole family stays in underground cellars to escape the heat. When it cools down, the family moves to the roof to sleep, enjoying the cool wind blowing from the snow-capped Bogda.

In spite of that, Turpan is an orchid that produces the sweetest grapes in the world. Nearly all those come to Xinjiang will visit Turpan, and almost all come find it a world of grapes, and are intoxicated with Uygur dances performed under vines and pergolas.

Dwellings are not to be founded on any high and open ground, instead you may find there a historical ruin, or simply some small beehive-like rooms built with clods of earth. These rooms are for drying grapes. The hot and dry wind coming and going through the holes on the walls helps make the fresh grapes in the rooms dried ones.

People in Turpan choose to live by water and mountains, or in the mountain valleys, for instance, in the Grape Gully, Wood Gully and Tuyu Gully live many households, each owns a vineyard. A typical local dwelling is featured with a pergola in the front and a vineyard at the back of the house. The grapevines are also served as a natural barrier to protect people from the scorching sun. Researches tell us that Turpan has boasted a history of grape planting for more than 3,000 years. It is a great wisdom in man’s choosing of grape planting and grapes’ choosing of Turpan.

The relics unearthed in Turpan reveal us its brilliant past. From the thousand-year-old ancient tombs, well kept mummies, Ji paper, the earliest paper made in China in 348, the earliest annotations made for The Analects, and Saddharmapundarika Sutra, an early presswork made during 695 and 699, tell us more that themselves.

The Underground Source of Life

The lifeblood of Turpan is from underground, from karez, the ancient irrigation system. Today scholars are still debating whether it was introduced from ancient Persia or from the Central China, or it was simply a creation of local people. But what that matters is that Turpan has been totally changed by the irrigation system.

Karez is an underground canal dug by local people to channel off snowmelt from the Mount Tianshan to vineyards. As you drive in the hot Gobi in Turpan, you will found many earth mounds as if strung by a thread stretching to the faraway mountains.

I encountered a 75-year-old Uygur in Turpan, from whom I know that digging karez is the most arduous farm work. First, they have to dig vertical wells at an interval of 20 or 30 meters, and then connect them one by one with the underground channel until to where they can get the snowmelt. No modern technology can be applied so far and he has done this all his life for 65 years.

He narrated in detail how to dig the channel. Light a lamp before digging. The space is very narrow allowing only one man to work there. The soil dug out is windlassed to the ground and piled around the well.

The most difficult thing is that it is hard to sense directions at a dozen meters below the ground. If it is not dug in the right direction, then the two vertical wells nearby will not be connected. So the digger has kept staring at the oil lamp that is set pointed at the direction where the channel goes. Oxygen is thin underground, and the digger is often choked with tears. “Some diggers get eye disease and shed tears when they see the sunlight,” the old man said.

The old man said that it is even harder to maintain karez than digging, because the soil usually becomes soft and loose after winter, and tends to collapse. So, karez will get dredged up each spring, otherwise, the underground channels will be clotted like man’s blood vessels, and manors after manors will suffer from the drought.

When it flows to the old man’s manor, the underground channel becomes an open irrigating canal, but still with the coldness of snow water from Mount Tianshan. Under entangled roots and dense leaves, it flows quietly around roots of poplar trees,. Mutton, fruits and vegetables are kept near the water surface. The hostess walks down the stone steps bare-footed to fetch water. There is harmony and peace everywhere. The old man told us that the channel, that was less than half a meter wide, provides water for more than 40 vineyards including his. He plants 15 kinds of grapes in his five-mu vineyard, and that is the livelihood of the family.

Water makes the driest place in China cover with green, and the hottest place in China produce the sweetest grapes in the world. And it also makes the hot and dry wind favorable to local residents.

When taking photographs of karez from an airplane, the vertical wells lining up densely make one easily link them with ants and ants’ nests.  Before the great nature, human beings, like ants, achieve their own great goal by accumulating insignificant strengths and powers. It is calculated that the total length of karez in Turpan exceeds the Yangtze, the longest river in China.

Droughts have given birth to karez, and the scorching heat helps people to manage vineyards. In Turpan, there exists such a correspondence between things that rival with each other at one time and borrow strength at the other time. That kind of harmony is always very impressive.

###

TRAVEL

Turpan –

Embroideries unearthed from the Astana Ancient Tombs depict a two-headed bird.  The historic chronicles of the Buddhist Sutra tell of the same metaphorical creature.  One head of the bird is below the ground drawing sustenance; the other is above earth prospering in a separate reality.  These fables are of a particular land and a special people.

* * *

Approximately 182 kilometers west of Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is The Turpan Basin, a territory spanning mountains, desert plains, lush vineyards and, finally, Aydingkol Lake at 155 meters below sea level.  It is here that Turpan holds its place as nearly the lowest point in the world – second only to the Dead Sea at the Jordan Valley.

To its native people, this exotic and geographically fantastic terrain is known as the “hot polar” and “flaming land.”  For good reason:  Average annual rainfall trickles in at approximately 16 millimeters; and about 100 days per year the temperature exceeds 35˚ Celsius – having reached a documented record of 49.6˚ Celsius in 1990.

Underground Life Source –

In this often foreboding landscape, the fertility of the Turpan soil and the fruitful existence of its people are testament to a subterranean marvel of native engineering.  Irrigating thousands of acres in this “flaming land,” is the Karez system.  These more than 1,200 channeled and interlocking wells exceed 5,000 kilometers in combined length, greater even than the Yangtze, the longest river in China.  Annually the system brings forth from the earth more than 300 million cubic meters of water.

With much of the system constructed more than 500 years ago, the Karez easily ranks among the three greatest of historic Chinese achievements; rivaled only by the Great Wall and the Grand Canal.

From an airborne vantage, the Karez seems as if made of sandy beads – earthen mounds strung by a weathered thread stretching to distant snowcapped Mount Tianshan.  Scholars remain uncertain as to whether the Karez technology was gleaned from ancient Persia or from Central China, or if it was indeed a creation of the local peoples.

Builder of Marvels –

Traveling by auto across the hot Gobi of Turpan, this writer encountered a man knowing first-hand of Karez construction.  This 75-year-old native Uygur agreed to share just a bit of his 65-years of experience in this most arduous of farm work – for which modern technology has yet to be applied.

First, he explained, vertical wells are dug dozens of meters in depth while the expelled soil is windlassed to the ground and piled around the well.  Then oil lamps are lit and the really hard work is begun.  Descending underground, the solo diggers work horizontally out to connect the subsidiary channels with the main underground artery.

This is the most stressful of tasks, the venerable farmer explains.  Deep underground in a shoulder-width tunnel one must sense the proper tangent.  Waver a meter in the wrong direction and the channels will not be met and labor will be lost.  While the digger has only his oil lamp for guidance, oxygen can go thin.  Often a digger will be overcome, his breath short, his eyes burning.  Our new friend explains, “Some even become sick, cursed with disease of the eye.  After a long day diggers will sometimes shed tears when they return to the surface and again see sunlight.”

The respected Uygur explains that the seasonal maintenance of the Karez can be even more complex than the first digging.  Because soil sometimes goes soft in the winter, to avoid collapse dredging is undertaken each spring.  Otherwise channels can clot like beleaguered blood vessels, and multitudes of crops and families may suffer from lack of water.

But reward is great if a Karez is properly built and maintained, our friend explains.  A channel less than a half-meter-wide can provide water for more than 40 vineyards.  His own five-mu vineyard, his family’s livelihood, yields 15 varieties of luscious grapes.

When a Karez is properly tended the fresh cold water of Mount Tianshan flows through vineyards and poplar trees while fruits, vegetables and mutton flourish by the waters.  In the evening a bare-footed hostess may descend stone steps to fetch water; harmony with nature is achieved; wellbeing of the people is assured.

Living with It –

Residing within this region does have its drawbacks, but the Turpan people are expert in their environment.  For instance, tales are told of ancient times when local magistrates would transact the business of government while sitting naked in a vat of cool water.

Today, perhaps more factually, the people of the Turpan Basin construct their dwellings mainly near water, at the base of mountains, or in the valleys.  Many homes and adjacent vineyards are found in the Grape Gully, Wood Gully and Tuyu Gully.  A typical residence will boast a sturdy pergola in the front and a plentiful vineyard to the rear.  The grapevines spanning pergolas provide more than income and sustenance; the hearty vines also serve well as a natural barrier to protect families from the scorching sun.

During high summer, doors and windows are shut in the hottest of daytime hours and families take refuge in cooler underground cellars.  In the evening they move to the roof and sleep within the sweet relief of cool winds blowing from the snow-capped Bogda.

And there are other advantages to inhabiting the hottest of China’s regions.  For instance, the people of Turpan rarely want for an egg of the well-cooked variety.  An egg tucked just under the daytime sand is well done within fifteen minutes.

Harvest of Sharing –

In spite of the sometimes scorching heat and dry environment, the Karez system has allowed the Turpan Basin to host lush crops, some of which produce the sweetest grapes in the world.

Turpan’s rich history of grape growing extends back more than 3,000 years.  Environmental wisdom and a love of growing reward these people and their fortunate visitors with a truly wonderful delicacy.

Those who visit Xinjiang should most certainly trek to Turpan.  And, when in   Turpan, one must enjoy its special grapes – perhaps while lost in the spectacle of the traditional Uygur dance, theatrically performed under vines and pergolas.

Call-Out Paragraphs –

The Turpan Basin may be granted only 16 millimeters rainfall annually, but each year the place vaporizes about 3,000 millimeters of water.  A spectacular byproduct of this inequitable exchange is the “Flaming Mountains” rising at the center of the basin.  The mountains may not be the highest on earth, but they exhibit more than their share of natural drama.  Covered with red sandstone pleat-like formations known as the “flaming tongues,” the scorching sun and vaporizing water seem to set the mountains ablaze.

Turpan’s brilliant past is revealed by ancient relics, such as thousand-year-old ancient tombs, preserved mummies, Ji paper dating to 338 (the earliest made in China), the earliest annotations made for The Analects and Saddharmapundarika Sutra and early presswork made during 695 and 699.  More of this region's illustrious history is revealed with each archeological find.

The structures seen distant on high and open ground are not dwellings, but more often historical ruins, or perhaps the beehive-like rooms built with clods of earth.  These porous rooms, with the hot air pouring through, are for perfecting grapes of the dry variety.

###