Building Bridges between East and West through Education and Cultural Exchange
Xinjiang Roadsides 2 — Life Today on the Silk Road
Views of both traditional and modern life and industry along the Old Silk Road in Xinjiang. Photos from early October, 2007.
For travelers, like myself, it is difficult to imagine the life of traditional caravan travelers of ancient times.
With a landmass 1/6 th of all China, Xinjiang has only 20 million people. Vast stretches of Xinjiang are uninhabited due to intense summer heat and lack of rainfall.
Nearby we see a yurt, historically a popular form of housing in the countryside… probably, here, for use by herdsmen.
Here we have a small reservoir and cattle raising.
These structures are used for drying grapes to produce raisins. The design provides shelter from the sun with lots of openings for the dry desert air to flow through.
Roadside rest stations were modern and busy.
This is a tourist service centre in Turpan.
The expressway was modern and well-maintained in every way. An old Chinese proverb says, If you want to do business, you must first build a road.
For many kilometres, these dam-like embankments protect the roadway from spring runoff flooding, channeling the water towards culverts under the road.
Coming out of the mountains, we noticed this “escape route” for runaway trucks. Nothing like a bank of sand to slow down a runaway transport truck.
The two figures here attracted my attention as a photographer…
… and in due time, their behavior made sense. The coach links Turpan (further east) with Jushi (further west).
And, closer to Urumqi, this modern passenger train overtook our highway coach.
Hot red peppers, called chilli peppers in some parts of the world, are the fruit of a perennial plant that abounds in this hot dry land.
Melons (including watermelons) are a major crop here, made possible by irrigation. They are grown for their seeds (roasted for eating) or processed for cooking oil.
Trees survive only if irrigated.
Just a glimpse of a small dusty town along the road.
Again, fields of cotton and maze.
A rural village.
One of the largest wind farms in the world is located along the Urumqi – Turpan highway.
While Xinjiang abounds in oil and gas, wind is a renewable resource in a country with an insatiable demand for more energy.
Infrastructure was impressive in Xinjiang, including the extent of mobile phone service. Transmitter stations are commonly powered by solar panels.
And, atop this mountain, another transmitter.
Evidence still in place of recent road-building activity.
A power-generating station. While most power in China is generated from coal, here in Xinjiang the fuel may well be natural gas.
