About the unknown side of Turpan

Detailed introduction of Turpan Sand Spa

It is located in Shengya Township, Turpan City, about 9 kilometers east of Turpan City. It is accessible by highway and the transportation is very convenient. 72 meters above sea level.

Sand therapy, or sand burial therapy, is a method used by the working people of Turpan to treat diseases by taking advantage of the unique local climate and geographical conditions. Turpan Basin has a dry and hot climate in summer, and sand therapy has a good therapeutic effect on some chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and hemiplegia. The sand therapy site is a wind-formed fixed sand dune, about 200 meters long, 60-80 meters wide, and 8-10 meters high. According to meteorological data for many years, Turpan is hot and dry from June 5 to August 20 every year. When the daytime temperature is as high as 38-42 degrees, the surface sand temperature is as high as 75-82 degrees. After 5 o'clock Beijing time every day, the sand temperature at a depth of 10 meters in the sand pile is still between 60 and 80 degrees. Sand burial therapy is a folk treatment method that buries diseased parts in the sand and uses the combined effects of sunlight, dry heat, pressure, and magnetism (the sand in sand therapy centers contains 9 times more magnetic minerals than sand outside) to treat diseases.

The Sand Therapy Institute was established in 1972 for the Uyghur Hospital in Turpan City. It is a specialized institution that provides medical consultation, treatment, recuperation, food and accommodation for sand therapy patients. It has built hospitals, guest houses and other facilities. It currently has 16 employees, including 6 medical staff. It has 800 beds and can receive up to more than 900 patients. It has a great influence among the masses.

The dunes are surrounded by farmland and some desert shrubs. The dunes are 8-10 meters above the ground and can fully receive solar heat energy. There are restaurants and simple lounges built next to the sand dunes, which can provide convenient food and lodging for patients at any time.

For tourism purposes, Turpan Sand Spa has been opened up as a tourist attraction for tourists to visit and enjoy sand therapy.

For detailed treatment details, please call local 118114.

Karez, the Great Wall and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are known as the three major projects in ancient China. There are nearly a thousand karez in Turpan, with a total length of about 500 kilometers. The structure of the karez is generally composed of four parts: vertical shafts, underground channels, surface channels and "waterlogging dams" (small reservoirs). Bogda Mountain in the north of the Turpan Basin and Kalawucheng Mountain in the west have four parts in spring and summer. A large amount of snow and rainwater flows down the valley and dives under the Gobi Desert. People took advantage of the slope of the mountain and cleverly created karez to divert underground water to irrigate farmland. Kaner does not evaporate a lot of water due to heat and strong winds, so the flow rate is stable, ensuring gravity irrigation.

Karez was recorded as early as "Historical Records" and was called "Jingqu" at that time. Most of the existing karez in Turpan were built successively since the Qing Dynasty. Today, large oasis fertile fields are still irrigated. Wudaolin Karez and Wuxing Township Karez on the outskirts of Turpan are available for sightseeing.

The name of Karez is called "Karez" in Xinjiang Uyghur. Iran is called "Kanatz" in Persian. Soviet Russian called it "Kanyaliz" (k,lplItK). From a phonetic point of view, although they are different from each other, the difference is not big.

Xinjiang in my country is called "Karez" or simply "Kan" in Chinese. Different provinces in mainland my country have different names; for example, Shaanxi calls it "Jingqu", Shanxi calls it "Water Alley", Gansu calls it "Hundred Eyes of Wells", and some places call it "underground channel."

Karez is an ancient horizontal water collection structure used to develop and utilize groundwater. It is suitable for foothills and alluvial fan areas. It is mainly used to intercept underground water for farmland irrigation and residential water use.

According to 1962 statistics, there are more than 1,700 karez wells in Xinjiang, my country, with a total flow rate of about 26 meters per second and an irrigated area of ??about 500,000 acres. Most of the karez wells are distributed in the Turpan and Hami basins. For example, there are more than 1,100 karez wells in the Turpan Basin, with a total flow rate of 18 m3/s and an irrigation area of ??470,000 acres, accounting for 67% of the total cultivated land area of ??700,000 acres in the basin. %, which is of great significance to the development of local agricultural production and meeting the living needs of residents.

The conditions for the formation of karez in Xinjiang

The conditions for the formation of karez in Xinjiang are analyzed from the following three aspects based on the survey data:

1. Possibility of natural conditions

The Turpan Basin is located in the center of Eurasia and is a typical closed inland basin in the eastern Tianshan Mountains. Because it is far from the ocean and surrounded by mountains, and the basin is narrow and low-lying, the humid climate is difficult to penetrate, with very little rainfall and huge evaporation. Therefore, the climate is extremely hot, and it has been known as the "Fire State" since ancient times.

According to statistics from 1952 to 1958, the average rainfall for many years is only 19.5 mm, with a maximum of 42.4 mm and a minimum of 5.2 mm. The average annual evaporation is 3608. 2mm. The multi-year average temperature is 14C, with the average temperature in the hottest month of July being 33.6C, and the average temperature in the coldest month being -9.8C. The highest temperature in the year is 47.6C, reaching 48C in July 1953, and the highest ground temperature can reach 75'C.

The basin is windy all year round, and the maximum wind force is generally level 7-8.

In 1961, there was a major wind disaster that had not happened in Turpan for 50 years. There were 56 strong winds above level 8 in the whole year. Among them, the strong wind on May 31st reached level 12 or above and lasted for 17 hours. For a long time, it caused pastoral damage and forest damage, making the beautiful oasis temporarily dim. The tragedy was shocking.

The topography of the basin is very different, and the terrain is steep. The surrounding high mountains were formed by the Hercynian Movement at the end of the Paleozoic Era. The rock layers are hard and have many fissures, which are conducive to the formation of fissure water. The Bogda Mountains in the north are The general altitude is between 3,500 and 4,000 meters, with the main peak reaching 5,445 meters. The highest peak of Kalau Mountain in the west is over 4,000 meters. They are all glaciers with extremely snowy history. The Jueluotage Mountain in the south has an altitude of 600 to 1,500 meters. The foothills are low, there is no snow, and there is little precipitation. It is an extremely dry, denuded and bare mountain. In the southeast is the Kumtag Sand Mountain, where sand is piled high. On top of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic bedrock of 300 to 500 meters, the extreme drought is a barren land. There is the Flame Mountain (Astentag) fold belt in the middle of the basin, which consists of a series of axial directions extending from northwest to northwest. It consists of an anticlinal structure from the south to the east. The exposed strata are mainly gritstone and mudstone from the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary systems. The anticline structure is cut by many preformed valleys, and the terrain is an altitude of 500 It is 1600 meters long, more than 90 kilometers long from east to west, and wide from north to south. 6-9 kilometers of hilly areas. The Flame Mountains divide the basin into north and south parts. Lake Aydin in the center of the basin is extremely low-lying. The lake bottom is 1.54 meters above sea level, making it one of the lowest land masses in the world. Due to the mutual asymmetry in the height of the mountains around the basin and the extremely low-lying center of the basin, huge thicknesses of Quaternary sediments are mostly accumulated in front of the mountains. This resulted in a sloping plain from north to south. The foothill alluvial and alluvial fan sections are mostly composed of larger-grained gravel and pebble strata, which gradually transform into finer-grained sand or clay strata toward the interior of the plain. The slope of the ground gradually becomes gentle from north to south. The ground slope of the northern alluvial fan is generally between 1/30 and 1/50, and the ground slope in the piedmont plain area is generally between 1/100 and 1/200.

Due to the extremely arid climate conditions in the basin, surface runoff is relatively scarce. In the north of the basin, the Tianshan water system, fed by ice, snow and rainfall, flows into the basin in the form of dozens of valley rivers. Among them, the main rivers arranged from east to west include Kalqi, Kekeya, Ertanggou, Kelanggou, Meiyaogou, Tallanggou, Daheyan, Alagou of Baiyang River, etc. The total annual runoff is only 665 million cubic meters, and the average annual flow is 21.1 meters3/second. The largest Baiyang River has an average annual flow rate of only 7.29 m3/s. The characteristics of these rivers are not only that their flow is not large, but the flood and dryness are very different, and after leaving the mountain pass, because the riverbed passes through the Gobi gravel zone, most of them seep into the ground, replenishing the groundwater runoff. However, because the Huoyan Mountain anticline structure in the central part of the basin is mostly muddy shale with extremely poor water permeability, it acts as an underground dam and prevents groundwater from flowing southward into the basin. As a result, many return phreatic problems have occurred in the northern foothills of the Flame Mountains. The high water level zone formed. A series of spring ditches are formed in all gaps in the Flame Mountain. The main ones include: Subei Valley, Lianmuqing Valley, Mutou Valley, Putao Valley, Taoer Valley, Yalnaizi Valley, Dacao Lake, etc. The spring water flow is very rich, with a total annual runoff of 354 million cubic meters. After these springs flow out of the Flame Mountains, they seep into the ground again and again, replenishing the underground runoff in the southern basin of the Flame Mountains. It is finally discharged into Lake Edin in the center of the basin. The area of ??the lake is about 100 square kilometers. If the annual evaporation is 3000 mm, the water consumed by evaporation in one year is 3. O billion cubic meters. According to data from the Turpan Water Conservancy Bureau, there are currently 1,177 karez wells with water in the Turpan Basin, and the average annual mining flow is 18.57 m3/s. The annual runoff has reached 585 million cubic meters.

Based on the above figures, the amount of utilized spring water and karez water plus the amount of water evaporated from the lake surface far exceeds the amount of surface runoff. Even if spring water is used as return water, it can be ignored, and the sum of the water extracted from the Karez and the evaporation of Aydin Lake is greater than the surface runoff of the Tianshan water system. This proves that the source of groundwater supply, in addition to riverbed seepage, is also supplied by fissure water in the Paleozoic rock formations in the Tianshan Mountains. Therefore, the groundwater resources in the Turpan Basin are relatively abundant. Coupled with the extremely large slope of the ground, it is possible to dig a karez under natural conditions.

2． The need for production development

From the perspective of production development conditions, the Turpan Basin has been a thoroughfare for Eurasian transportation and an important place for economic and cultural exchanges as far back as the ancient Han and Tang Dynasties. Although the climate in the area is arid and the ground water resources are very However, it is rich in underground water resources and abundant natural springs, so that the land below the alluvial fan edge is full of fertile oases. The climate is very hot, the thermal energy resources are abundant, and the frost-free period lasts for more than 2 to 30 days, making it an ideal area for agricultural development. Therefore, people have used natural spring water for agricultural production since ancient times, not only growing general grain and oil crops, but also developing cash crops such as cotton, grapes, fruits, and vegetables.

The agricultural production here is not only of economic importance, but also of political and military importance.

Therefore, further development of agricultural production will inevitably require people to develop more underground water sources. In other words, the development history of agricultural production is the history of the working people’s development and utilization of groundwater. Through thousands of years of production labor practice and internal and external culture Through the exchange of technical experience, people finally gradually found the best form of developing and utilizing groundwater - karez.

3. Economic and technical rationality

Although the Turpan Basin is rich in coal, oil and other mineral energy, it has not been vigorously exploited until today. Therefore, not only were there great restrictions on the economic and technical conditions for digging karez in ancient times, but even today, there is still a shortage of power machinery and equipment for digging karez. There is also little electricity supply, and steel and cement are transported from long distances. These conditions bring great difficulties to the construction of surface water conservancy projects. However, the water intake form of karez can not only save earthworks, but also provide continuous water supply all year round. Moreover, the local people have lived in hot areas for a long time and have the habit and experience of building caves and caves. In addition, during the practice of digging spring water, people gradually discovered that underground channels in the form of karez can not only prevent sand invasion, but also reduce evaporation losses. Engineering materials are not widely used, and the operation technology is quite simple and can be easily mastered by the local people. This is very convenient for overcoming various local economic and technical difficulties. Therefore, when the economic and technical conditions were poor in ancient times, it was even more economically reasonable for the working people of all ethnic groups to use the karez method to mine and utilize groundwater.

To sum up, there are three basic conditions for the formation of karez in the Turpan area, namely:

① In terms of local natural conditions, due to drought and lack of rainfall, ground water sources are scarce. If people want to produce and live, they have to pay attention to the development and utilization of groundwater. At the same time, the local groundwater is abundant because it is supplied by mountains. The slope of the ground is steep, which is conducive to the construction of qanat projects, the extraction of rich underground water sources, gravity irrigation of farmland and drinking water for humans and animals.

② In terms of production development at that time, due to political, economic and military requirements, as well as the spread of Eastern and Western cultures at that time, people had to further try to increase the amount of groundwater extraction and expand the irrigation area. to meet the needs of agricultural production development. Therefore, the spring diversion structure must be improved, and holes must be dug and extended to increase its water output. In this way, the rudimentary method of collecting water through karez was gradually formed.

③ In terms of economic and technical conditions at that time, although the level of economic and technical conditions was very low, the structural form of the karez project could greatly reduce the amount of earthwork in the project, and the construction equipment was extremely simple and the operation technology was easy to do. It was controlled by the local people, so the karez method of collecting water was a relatively ideal form based on the economic and technical conditions at that time.

The theory of the origin of karez in Xinjiang

As for the origin of karez in Xinjiang, based on the information obtained through the current investigation, it can basically be divided into "introduction theory" and "self-creation theory" Two types of studies. The "introduction theory" can be divided into two types: "foreign introduction theory" and "domestic introduction theory", which are described as follows:

1. The theory of inheritance

(1) The theory of introduction from abroad

This theory mainly believes that karez was introduced to Xinjiang from Persia (now Iran) in the 17th century. Its basis is:< /p>

① The names are basically the same: "Kanez" in Uyghur and "Kanez" in Persian, and the languages ????are basically the same.

② The person has evidence: As early as 1780 (Qing Dynasty, Qianlong), the Persian Solimen came to Turpan and built a brick tower (now Sugong Tower). This can be proved.

However, this theory has the following problems:

① Although the name is the same, it may have been introduced to Persia from Xinjiang.

②Although there are certificates for the characters, it is only more than 180 years ago. In 1962, we visited Asiumu (86 years old at the time), an old Kaner craftsman from the local Five Star Commune. He believed that as early as 300 to 400 years ago There was a karez in front of it.

(2) Domestic introduction theory

This theory mainly believes that karez was introduced from Dali, Shaanxi Province via Dunhuang to the Bailongdui Desert area of ??Xinjiang, and then to Turpan. The basis is:

① According to historical records: According to historical records, in the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (141 BC to 87 BC) in 109 BC, there were wells and canals in Dali, Shaanxi today, and they were the same as those of the Han Dynasty. It is said in the Western Regions that when the Western Han Dynasty stationed troops in Dunhuang to attack Wusun, at the foot of the earth mountain in the southeast of today's Bailongdui Desert, there was a Bei Tuanhou Well (Dajing Liutong Canal) that used spring water.

In addition, when the Western Han Dynasty attacked Dawan (the Samar dry area in Central Asia in the Soviet Union today), the local people did not know how to dig wells. There is no record of karez in history before the Yuan Dynasty. It was not until 1262 (more than 700 years ago) that the "Records of the Western Envoy" written by Liu Yu of the Yuan Dynasty had records of "wells and canals" as evidence, indicating that there had been records of karez in China for a long time. Well and canal structure, wells appeared very late in Central Asia.

② According to the names of the old karez, the names of the tools for digging karez, and the antiquities found in the ancient karez, it is proved that many karez have Han names: Qianshengguikan, Ximenkan, Dongmenkan, Dachangshuikan... …; Tool names such as single windlass, horse windlass, and ancient ones were found buried underground in the Erbao Reservoir in Shanshan. There are copper hookahs in the karez, indicating that the karez was dug first by the Han people.

③According to the investigation and comments of Soviet experts, Soviet hydrogeological expert B.H. Kunin came to Xinjiang from 1957 to 1959 to inspect Xinjiang and believed that the structure and management methods of the karez in Turpan were similar to those in Soviet Central Asia and Iran. All are different.

Therefore, it is believed that Xinjiang Karez was invented by the working people of the Han nationality more than 2,000 years ago, and has been carried forward through the long-term production practice of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Its hometown is Dali, Shaanxi, and it has settled in Xinjiang since the Western Han Dynasty.

But this statement has the following questions:

a. Shaanxi wells and canals are a project for transporting surface water, not a project for developing and utilizing groundwater. There is a certain difference.

b. The karez tools with Chinese names can only prove that the Han people participated in making the tools during the digging of karez, but it does not necessarily prove the history of karez. The karez with Han names or names is not necessarily the earliest karez.

c. The buried karez only has copper hookahs to prove that it has an earlier history and was dug by the Han people, which is not sufficient. Because Turpan is heavily windy and sandy, it was buried early, so it may not be the earliest karez.

In addition, similar to this theory, some people believe that Lin Zexu (1785-1850) invented the karez. There is also a time issue. Because Lin Zexu only has a history of more than 100 years, it can only be said that he contributed to the promotion of karez but has little to do with its origin.

2． The theory of self-creation

The theory of self-creation mainly believes that karez was gradually created through practice by the local working people of all ethnic groups in the development of agricultural production and the struggle against drought. The reasons are:

① The working people began to use spring water for irrigation. In the process of digging and extending the spring water, they found that the water volume could be increased. The longer and deeper the open channel was, the deeper the open channel was, the larger the earthwork would be, and it would be easily buried by sand when it froze and collapsed. Therefore, It developed into drilling holes to extend the depth to collect water, forming the earliest corridors. After extending the corridors, it was difficult to excavate and transport soil, and then unearthed shafts were produced, thus forming the original karez in the process of continuous development.

② The local natural conditions are extremely arid and surface water sources are very scarce. Objective conditions force people to pay attention to the development and utilization of underground water sources in order to ensure the development of agricultural production and the water requirements of residents. However, other areas in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains are not as outstanding as Turpan in this regard. At the same time, the ground slope is not as steep as in the Turpan area, which is conducive to the extraction and utilization of groundwater using the method of karez.

③ It is believed that the Karez in Turpan has a history of more than 2,000 years, and there was a Karez in the area as early as the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC).

The problems with this theory are:

a. There is still a lack of necessary evidence for the history of more than two thousand years (because it is earlier than the Shaanxi Jingqu and there is no documentary evidence).

b. Why are the names of Qanat similar to those in Central Asia?

According to the various origin theories of Qanat mentioned above, each has a different point of view. Through investigation and analysis, we put forward the following preliminary insights and understandings of the origin of Qanat:

① Judging from the name of Qanat: Xinjiang, the Soviet Union, and Iran all have similar pronunciations. They seem to be similar to each other and related to each other.

② Judging from the structure of karez: Xinjiang, the Soviet Union, and Shaanxi all have their own characteristics, and they seem to be independent and different from each other.

③ Judging from the distribution of karez: the Turpan Basin in Xinjiang is indeed a relatively arid area. If karez was introduced, why were there not many in other arid areas in southern Xinjiang or Gansu where it was introduced? Was the karez used early?

④ Judging from the tools and equipment of the karez: it can be proved that working people of all ethnic groups participated in this work, and Han people were mainly involved in the production of well-drilling tools.

⑤ From the perspective of natural conditions: Turpan is indeed the most arid and water-deficient area, and it is also an area with very rich groundwater. , and at the same time, the ground slope is the steepest area. It is beneficial to the excavation of karez.

Based on the above preliminary understanding and experience, we believe that:

The theory of autogenesis seems to be in line with the laws of development of things, but the certain role of the theory of introduction cannot be denied. (Such as the name of the karez, the tools used and the introduction of well-drilling technology, etc.).

According to historical conditions, Turpan was the main route of ancient Eurasian transportation (Silk Road) and an area of ??economic and cultural exchanges. The introduction of Eastern and Western culture and technology would have played a certain role in the formation of Qanat. important role. Therefore, we believe that the karez was formed under comprehensive conditions, but we tend to prefer the autogenesis theory as the main one and the incoming theory as the negative, that is, internal cause is the main cause and external cause is the secondary cause.

However, since these materials are only our preliminary investigation and there is still a lack of historical research data, the formation and origin of the karez is still an issue that requires further research.

The current situation of karez

In recent years, the karez in Turpan has been declining. There were as many as 1,700 karez wells in Xinjiang in the 1950s. As they continued to dry up, the number had dropped to more than 860 in the late 1980s. The number of karez wells in Turpan reached 1,273 at its peak, but currently only about 725 remain.

The first reason is the severe damage to the peripheral ecosystem of the oasis in Turpan.

According to the latest satellite remote sensing monitoring data, the area of ??heavily developed desertified land in this area accounts for 46.87% of the total area, while the non-desertified area only accounts for 8.8% of the total area. Water resources are becoming increasingly scarce, groundwater levels are declining, and the flow of karez water is also decreasing year by year.

With the economic development in Turpan, motor-driven wells have been widely used. The investment in motorized wells is low, the efficiency is high, and the mining is extremely random. Thousands of motorized wells in the region pump large amounts of water from the ground. However, of the 1.1 billion cubic meters of available water resources in the region, groundwater only accounts for 200 million. Comparatively speaking, karez is expensive to build and difficult to maintain, resulting in a declining usage rate. In terms of surface water utilization, reservoirs are built in the upper reaches of some rivers. After dams intercept the water, downstream water sources are stretched. The existing Kekoya Reservoir and Karez Reservoir have directly caused an existential crisis for the nearly 100 karez wells downstream of them.

In addition, the development of the Tuha Oilfield continues to increase. The Tuha Oilfield alone uses 5 million cubic meters of water from Turpan every year. The oil fields consume a lot of water, and the wells are drilled extremely deep, so a large amount of deep underground water is pumped away, indirectly affecting the karez water source. Especially drilling oil wells near karez puts the karez at risk of contamination. In 1997, an oil well upstream of the karez intersected with the karez in the Tuha Oilfield, resulting in oil seepage. Due to the lack of in-depth monitoring methods, it is currently difficult to determine the deep impact of oil fields on water quality.

There are completely different views on the decline of karez. One view is that from a purely economic point of view, karez is no longer necessary for survival. Today, with the rapid development of science and technology, karez is too backward. It is easy to dry up in summer, and it is easy to run away when there is a lot of water in winter and cannot be stored. The reservoir can store water and carry out ecological adjustment at any time. The karez should be allowed to die out naturally and the fittest should survive, and be replaced by water conservancy facilities such as reservoirs.

Another view is that karez is a rare and precious cultural heritage left by the working people in ancient my country and has extremely high historical and scientific value. Especially today when ecological development is emphasized, karez It has incomparable tourism development value. If this human heritage is lost due to today's short-sightedness, we will be a disgrace to future generations.

Survival or destruction? The fate of the karez hangs in the balance. Cai Binghua, deputy commissioner of the Administrative Office who has worked in the Turpan area for 30 years, lamented: "If it continues, karez will cease to exist in 30 years."

The attitude of the local people is: the reservoir needs to be built, and the motor-driven well must be built. It needs to be dug and the karez needs to be protected. It is reported that in addition to including karez as part of agricultural water conservancy for maintenance and repair, the Turpan region has also organized a "Karez Research Association" and will set up a "Karez Monitoring Station" to observe changes in karez water level and water quality at any time. In order to bring the protection of karez into the track of legal management, the Turpan region drafted the "Turpan Karez Water Resources Regulations" and other relevant regulations three years ago and submitted them to the People's Congress of the Autonomous Region for approval for implementation, but so far no approval has been received. It is understood that the area is also preparing to apply to the country and autonomous regions to establish a Karez Nature Reserve to avoid new damage caused by new development and construction.