About the unknown side of Turpan

Detailed introduction of Turpan sand therapy scenic spot.

Located in Shengya Township, Turpan City, about 9 kilometers east of Turpan City, it has highway access and convenient transportation. It is 72 meters above sea level.

Sand therapy, that is, sand burial therapy, is a method for working people in Turpan to treat diseases by using the unique local climate and geographical conditions. The climate in Turpan basin is dry and hot in summer, and sand therapy is effective in treating some chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and hemiplegia. The sand therapy site is an aeolian fixed sand dune, about 200 meters long, 60-80 meters wide and 8- 10 meters high. According to the 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. Every day after 5: 00 Beijing time, the sand temperature in the sand pile 10 meter is still between 60-80 degrees. Sand-burying therapy is a folk therapy in which the affected part is buried in the sand, and the comprehensive effects of sunlight, dry heat, pressure and magnetic force are used to treat the disease.

Sand therapy scenic resort, established in 1972, is a specialized institution providing medical consultation, treatment, recuperation and accommodation for sand therapy patients. There are hospitals, guest houses and other facilities, with employees 16, including 6 medical staff, 800 beds, and more than 900 patients at most, which has a great influence among the masses.

The sand dunes are surrounded by farmland and some desert shrubs, which are 8- 10 meters away from the ground and can fully receive solar heat energy. There is a restaurant and a simple lounge next to the sand dunes, which can provide accommodation and convenience for patients at any time.

For tourism purposes, Turpan Sand Therapy Scenic Area has been opened as a tourist attraction for tourists to visit and have sand therapy.

Please call local118114 for detailed treatment details.

Karez, Wan Li Great Wall and Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are also called the three major ancient projects in China. There are nearly a thousand karez wells in Turpan, with a total length of about 500 kilometers. The structure of Karez is generally composed of four parts: shaft, underground passage, ground passage and "waterlogging dam" (small reservoir). Bogda Mountain in the north of Turpan Basin and Karawu Mountain in the west are both mountains. In spring and summer, a lot of rain and snow flow down the valley and dive under the Gobi Desert. People use the slope of the mountain to skillfully create karez, which leads underground undercurrent to irrigate farmland. Kaner won't evaporate a lot of water because of high temperature and strong wind, so the flow is stable and self-flow irrigation is guaranteed.

Karez, as early as in historical records, was called "well canal". Most of the existing Karez wells in Turpan were built in the Qing Dynasty. Today, a large area of oasis fertile land is still being watered. There are karez in Wulin and karez in Wuxing township in the suburbs of Turpan, which can be visited.

The name of Karez is called "Karez" in Xinjiang Uygur language. Iranian Persian is called "Kanatz". Soviet Russian is called "K, lplItK". From the phonetic point of view, although there are differences between the two, there is not much difference.

Xinjiang people in China are referred to as "Kaner Well" or "Kaner" for short. Different provinces in Chinese mainland have different names; For example, Shaanxi is called "well canal", Shanxi is called "water lane", Gansu is called "hundred-eye string well", and some places are called "underground passage"

Karez is a horizontal water-collecting building for exploiting and utilizing groundwater in ancient times, which is suitable for foothills and alluvial fan edges. It is mainly used for intercepting groundwater, irrigation of farmland and domestic water for residents.

According to the statistics of 1962, there are about 1700 karez wells in Xinjiang, China, with a total flow of about 26 m3/s and an irrigated area of about 500,000 mu. Most of these karez are distributed in Turpan and Hami basins. For example, there are about karez 1 100 in Turpan basin, with a total flow of 18 m3/s and an irrigation area of 470,000 mu, accounting for 67% of the total cultivated land area of 700,000 mu, which is of great significance to the development of local agricultural production and the satisfaction of residents' living needs.

Formation conditions of karez in Xinjiang

According to the investigation data, the formation conditions of karez in Xinjiang are analyzed from the following three aspects:

1. The possibility of natural conditions

Turpan basin, located in the middle of Eurasia, is a typical closed inland basin in the East Tianshan Mountains. Because it is far away from the ocean and surrounded by mountains, the basin is narrow and low-lying, and the humid climate is difficult to immerse, with less rainfall and large evaporation. Therefore, the climate is extremely hot, and it has been called "Fire State" since ancient times.

According to the statistics of 1952- 1958 for seven years, the average annual rainfall is only 19.5 mm, the maximum is 42.4 mm, the minimum is 5.2 mm, the average annual evaporation is 3608.2 mm, the average annual temperature is 14C, and the average in the hottest July is 33.6C C. The annual maximum temperature is 47.6℃, 1. 1July, 953, the temperature reached 48 degrees Celsius, and the highest temperature on the ground reached 75 degrees Celsius. ..

The basin is windy all the year round, and the maximum wind force is generally 7-8. 196 1 year, Turpan suffered the worst typhoon in 50 years. There were 56 strong winds of magnitude 8 or above in the whole year. Among them, the gale on May 3rd1day reached l2 level and lasted for 17 hours, which caused damage to the countryside and the forest, and made the beautiful oasis suddenly pale.

The topography of the basin is very different and steep. Most of the surrounding mountains were formed by Hercynian movement at the end of Paleozoic. The rock stratum is hard and the cracks are developed, which is beneficial to the formation of fissure water. The elevation of Bogda Mountain in the north is generally between 3500 and 4000 meters, and the main peak is as high as 5445 meters. Mount Kalou in the west is the peak with the highest peak above 4000 meters. In the south, there are extremely snowy glaciers and Jueluotag Mountain, with an altitude of 600- 1, 500m, low foothills, no snow and little precipitation. It is an extremely dry bare mountain. In the southeast is Kumtagesha Mountain, where sand is accumulated on the bedrock of Paleozoic and Mesozoic and Cenozoic, with a height of 0.300-500 meters. It is extremely dry and barren here. There is a Huoyanshan fold belt in the middle of the basin, which consists of a series of anticline structures with northwest-southwest-southeast axis. The exposed strata are mainly glutenite and mudstone of Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary, and many anticline structures are preformed. The flaming mountain divides the basin into north and south parts. The Aiding Lake in the center of the basin is extremely low, with an altitude of-1.54m, which is one of the lowest lands in the world. Due to the asymmetry of mountain heights around the basin, the center of the basin is extremely low, and most of the Quaternary sediments are accumulated in front of Jiazhi Mountain. Therefore, an inclined plain is formed from north to south. The alluvial-diluvial fan area in front of the mountain is mostly a gravel layer with large particles, which is gradually transformed into a fine sand or clay layer and enters the plain. The slope of the ground gradually slows down from north to south. The slope of alluvial fan in the north is generally 1/30- 1/50, and the piedmont plain is generally between1100-1/200.

Due to the extremely dry climatic conditions in the basin, surface runoff is relatively scarce. Tianshan water system is replenished by rain and snow in the north of the basin and flows to the basin in the form of dozens of river valleys. The main rivers are Calzi, Kekeya, Ertanggou, Kelanggou, Meiyaogou, Talanggou, Daheyan and Alagou of Baiyang River. The total annual runoff is only 665 million cubic meters, and the average annual runoff is 2 1. 1 m3/s, of which the average annual runoff of Baiyang River, the largest, is only 7.29 m3/s ... These rivers are characterized by small flow and great disparity between drought and flood. After passing through the mountain pass, most of the riverbed seeps into the ground because it passes through the Gobi gravel belt, supplementing the groundwater runoff. However, the anticline structure of Huoyanshan in the middle of the basin is mostly argillaceous shale with poor permeability, which acts as an underground dam to prevent groundwater from flowing into the basin southward. Therefore, there are many high water level zones formed by phreatic water backflow at the northern foot of Huoyanshan. A series of springs and ditches have been formed at all the gaps in the Flame Mountain. Among them: Subei ditch, Lianmuqin ditch, Mutou ditch, Grape ditch, Taoergou, Yaernai ditch, Dacao Lake and so on. The spring water flow is very rich, with an annual runoff of 354 million cubic meters. After these springs flow out of the Flame Mountain, they seep into the ground, supplementing the underground runoff of the southern basin of the Flame Mountain. Finally, it is discharged into Aiding Lake in the center of the basin. The area of this lake is about 1 OO square kilometers. If the annual evaporation is 3000mm, the annual evaporation consumption is 30 million cubic meters. According to the data of Turpan Water Conservancy Bureau, there are currently 65,438+065,438+077 wells in Turpan Basin, with an average annual exploitation flow of L 8.57 m3/s ... that is, the annual runoff has reached 585 million m3.

According to the above figures, the amount of spring water and karez water used plus the amount of water evaporated from the lake far exceeds the surface runoff. Even if spring water is regarded as regression water theory, it can be ignored. The sum of karez mining water and evaporation of Aiding Lake is greater than the surface runoff of Tianshan water system. It is proved that the recharge source of groundwater is not only river bed leakage, but also Paleozoic rock fissure water in Tianshan mountain area, so Turpan basin is rich in groundwater resources. Coupled with the large slope of the ground, it constitutes the possibility of digging karez under natural conditions.

2. The necessity of production development

Judging from the conditions of production and development, Turpan basin was an important place for transportation and economic and cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia as early as the Han and Tang Dynasties. Although the climate in this area is dry and the surface water source is very scarce, the underground water source is abundant and the natural spring water is abundant, which makes the land below the edge of the alluvial fan become a fertile oasis. The climate is very hot and rich in heat energy resources, and the frost-free period is more than 2 30 days, which is an ideal area for agricultural development. Therefore, people have used natural spring water for agricultural production since ancient times, not only planting general grain and oil crops, but also developing cash crops such as cotton, grapes, fruits and vegetables.

The agricultural production here has not only economic significance, but also political and military significance. Therefore, the further development of agricultural production inevitably requires people to develop more groundwater sources, that is to say, the history of agricultural production is the history of working people's development and utilization of groundwater. Through thousands of years of productive labor practice and the exchange of cultural and technical experience at home and abroad, people have finally gradually found the best form of developing and utilizing groundwater-karez.

3. Economic and technical rationality

Although Turpan basin is rich in mineral energy such as coal and oil, it has not been vigorously developed and utilized until today. Therefore, not only the economic and technical conditions of digging Karez in ancient times were greatly limited, but even today, the power machinery and equipment for digging Karez are still very scarce. Electricity supply is also very small, and steel and cement are also shipped from far away. These conditions have brought great difficulties to the construction of surface water conservancy projects. However, the water intake form of Karez can not only save earthwork, but also supply water all the year round. Moreover, the local people have lived in hot areas for a long time, so they have the habit and experience of repairing kilns and building holes. In addition, in the production practice of digging spring water, people gradually found the underground passage in the form of karez, which can not only prevent sandstorms, but also reduce evaporation losses. Engineering materials are not widely used, and the operation technology is quite simple, which is easy for local people to master. This is very convenient for overcoming various local economic and technical difficulties. Therefore, in the case of poor economic and technical conditions in ancient times, it is more economical and reasonable for working people of all ethnic groups to exploit and utilize groundwater by karez.

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

(1) Under the local natural conditions, people have to pay attention to the development and utilization of groundwater if they want to produce and live. At the same time, due to mountain recharge, the local groundwater reserves are abundant. The steep slope on the ground is conducive to the construction of Karez project, the exploitation of rich underground water sources, the self-flow irrigation of farmland and the solution of drinking water for people and livestock.

(2) In the production development at that time, due to the political, economic and military requirements at that time and the spread of eastern and western cultures, people had to further try to increase the exploitation of groundwater and expand the irrigation area to meet the needs of agricultural production development. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the structure of the distributary spring, extend the distributary spring by digging holes and increase its water output. In this way, the karez water intake method in the embryonic period was gradually formed.

(3) At that time, although the level of economic and technical conditions was very low, the structural form of Karez project could greatly reduce the earthwork volume of the project, and the construction equipment was extremely simple, and the operation technology was easy to be mastered by local people. Therefore, the water intake method of Karez was an ideal form at that time.

The origin theory of karez in Xinjiang

According to the data obtained from the current investigation, the origin of Xinjiang Karez can be basically divided into two categories: "introduction theory" and "self-creation theory". In the "introduction theory", it can be divided into "foreign introduction theory" and "domestic introduction theory", which are described as follows:

1. Offspring theory

(1) theory introduced from abroad

This theory mainly holds that Karez was introduced into Xinjiang from Persia (now Iran) in the17th century, and its basis is as follows:

① The names are basically the same: Uighur "Karez" and Persian "Karez", and the languages are basically the same.

② People have evidence: Persian Su Liman came to Turpan in 1 780 (Qingganlong) and built a brick tower (now the Sugong Tower) as proof.

But this theory has the following problems:

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

(2) Although the map has a certificate, it is only 180 years old. In l962, we visited Axiu Mu, an old craftsman of Karez in the local five-star commune (he was 86 years old at that time). He thought that Karez had existed as early as 300-400 years ago.

(2) the theory introduced in China.

This theory mainly believes that Karez was introduced from Dali, Shaanxi Province to Bailongdui desert area in Xinjiang, and then to Turpan. The basis is as follows:

(1) According to historical records, there was the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty in BC 109 (87 years before BC 1465438), and now there are wells and canals in Dali, Shaanxi. According to the legend of the Western Han Dynasty, when the Dunhuang army attacked Wusun, there was a humble Hou Jing (the Great Jingliu Tongqu) at the foot of the heaped-up mountain in the southeast of Bailongdui Desert.

In addition, when the Western Han Dynasty attacked Dawan (now the arid area of Samar in Central Asia in the Soviet Union), local people could not dig wells. There is no record of Karez in the history before Yuan Dynasty. It was not until12 6 2 (more than 700 years ago) that there was a record of "well and canal" in The Journey to the West written by Liu Yu in Yuan Dynasty, indicating that well and canal structure existed in China a long time ago, and wells appeared in Central Asia very late.

(2) According to the names of ancient karez, the names of tools for digging karez and the discovery of ancient karez antiquities, it is proved that many karez are Chinese names: Qianshengguikan, Ximenkan, Dongmenkan and Dachangshuikan. The names of tools, such as single roller, horse roller, copper hookah buried underground and Karez, found in the water storage of Shanshan No.2 Fort indicate that Karez was first excavated by Han people.

(3) Soviet hydrogeologist B·H· Kuning l957 came to Xinjiang on 1959 according to the investigation and comments of Soviet experts, and thought that Karez in Turpan was different from Karez in Soviet Central Asia and Iran in structure and management mode.

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

But this statement has the following problems:

A. Well canals in Shaanxi are projects for conveying surface water, not for developing and utilizing groundwater, but there are still some differences.

B Karez tools with Chinese names can only prove that Han people participated in making tools when digging Karez, and may not prove the history of Karez. Karez with Chinese names or names may not be the earliest Karez.

C the buried karez only proves that the history of the copper hookah was earlier, and it was excavated by Han people, which is not enough. Because Turpan is windy and dusty and buried early, it is not necessarily the earliest karez.

In addition, similar to this theory, some people think that Lin Zexu (1785-l850) invented Karez, and there is also a time problem. Because Lin Zexu's history is only 100 years, it can only show that he has made great contributions to the advocacy of Karez, but it has little to do with the origin.

2. Self-creation theory

The theory of self-creation mainly holds that Karez was gradually created by the local working people of all ethnic groups in the struggle against drought in developing agricultural production. The reason for this is the following：

The working people began to irrigate with spring water. In the process of digging and extending the spring water, it is found that the amount of water can be increased, and the longer and deeper the open channel is, the larger the earthwork is, and the frozen collapse is easily buried by sand. So it developed into a deep hole to take water, forming the earliest corridor. After the corridor was extended, the soil was difficult to dig, and then the unearthed well was formed, thus forming the original Karez well in the process of continuous development.

(2) The local natural conditions are extremely dry and the surface water resources are very scarce. Objective conditions force people to pay attention to the development and utilization of underground water sources to ensure the development of agricultural production and the requirements of residents' domestic water use. Other areas in the north and south of Tianshan Mountain are not as prominent as Turpan in this respect. At the same time, it is not as steep as the ground slope in Turpan, which is beneficial to the development and utilization of groundwater in Karez.

The karez in Turpan is believed to have a history of more than 2,000 years. As early as the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC), there were karez in Turpan.

The problem with this theory is:

A. The history of more than 2,000 years still lacks necessary evidence (because it is earlier than the wells and canals in Shaanxi, and there is no documentary evidence).

B Why is the name of Karez similar to that of Central Asia?

According to the various theories on the origin of Karez mentioned above, there are different views. Through investigation and analysis, we put forward the following preliminary experience and understanding of the origin of Karez:

① From the name of Karez: Xinjiang, the Soviet Union and Iran all have similar phonetics. Looks similar to each other, but also related to each other.

② From the structure of Karez: Xinjiang, the Soviet Union and Shaanxi have their own characteristics, seemingly independent and different.

③ According to the distribution of karez, Turpan Basin in Xinjiang is indeed a relatively arid area. If Karez was introduced, why didn't Karez be adopted earlier in southern Xinjiang or other arid areas in Gansu?

(4) From the tools and equipment of Karez, it can be proved that the working people of all ethnic groups participated in this work, mainly the Han people made sinking tools.

⑤ In terms of natural conditions, Turpan is indeed the most arid and water-deficient area, and it is also an area rich in groundwater. At the same time, the ground slope is the steepest area. Conducive to the excavation of karez.

According to the above preliminary understanding and experience, we believe that:

The theory of self-creation seems to conform to the law of the development of things, but it cannot be denied that the introduction has played a certain role. (such as the name of karez, the tools used and the introduction of sinking technology, etc. ).

Seen from the historical conditions, Turpan is an ancient Eurasian traffic artery (Silk Road) and an economic and cultural exchange area. The introduction of eastern and western cultures and technologies will play an important role in the formation of Karez. Therefore, we believe that Karez was formed under comprehensive conditions, but it tends to be dominated by self-creation and negative, that is, internal factors are dominant and external factors are auxiliary.

However, because these materials are only our preliminary investigation and lack of historical textual research data, the formation and origin of Karez is still a problem that needs further study.

Present situation of karez

In recent years, Karez in Turpan has been declining. There were as many as 1700 karez wells in Xinjiang in 1950s, but with the continuous depletion, it had dropped to more than 860 wells in the late 1980s. There are at most 1273 karez in Turpan area, and there are only about 725 karez at present.

The reason is that the ecosystem around the oasis in Turpan area has been seriously damaged. The latest satellite remote sensing monitoring data show that the area with serious desertification has accounted for 46.87% of the total area, while the area without desertification only accounts for 8.8% of the total area. With the shortage of water resources, the groundwater level is declining, and the water flow in Karez is also decreasing year by year.

With the economic development in Turpan area, motor wells have been widely used. Pumped wells have less investment, high efficiency and great randomness in mining. Thousands of motor wells in the whole region have pumped a lot of water from underground, and of the available water resources in the whole region110 billion cubic meters, groundwater only accounts for 200 million. Comparatively speaking, karez is expensive and difficult to maintain, which leads to a continuous decline in utilization rate; In the utilization of surface water, some rivers have built reservoirs in the upstream, and after the dam is cut off, the downstream water sources will be stretched. The Kekeya Reservoir and Karez Reservoir that have been built have directly caused survival crisis to nearly 100 Karez wells downstream.

In addition, the development of Tuha Oilfield is also increasing. Tuha Oilfield alone consumes 5 million cubic meters of water every year. The oil field consumes a lot of water, and the deep groundwater is pumped away, which indirectly affects the water source of Karez. In particular, drilling oil wells near Karez makes Karez face the danger of pollution. During the period of 1997, the oil well upstream of Karez met Karez in Tuha Oilfield, and oil leakage occurred. Due to the lack of further monitoring means, it is still difficult to judge the deep impact of oil fields on water quality.

There are different views on the gradual decline of Karez. One view is that karez is no longer necessary for survival from the perspective of pure economics. Today, with the rapid development of science and technology, Karez is too backward, and it is easy to dry up in summer, and it is easy to be lost for a long time in winter and cannot be stored. The reservoir can store water and make ecological adjustment at any time. Karez should be allowed to die out naturally, and the superior and the inferior should be eliminated, and replaced by water conservancy facilities such as reservoirs.

Another view is that Karez is a precious cultural heritage left by the working people in ancient China, which has extremely high historical and scientific value, especially in today's emphasis on ecological development, Karez has unparalleled tourism development value. If this human heritage disappears completely because of today's short-sightedness, we will be ashamed of future generations.

To be or not to be? Karez's fate hangs in the balance. Cai, deputy Commissioner of the administrative office who has worked in Turpan for 30 years, said sadly: "If this continues, Karez will cease to exist within 30 years."

The attitude of the local people is: building reservoirs, drilling wells and protecting karez. It is reported that at present, in Turpan area, in addition to bringing Karez into a part of agricultural water conservancy for maintenance, Karez Research Association has also been organized, and Karez monitoring station will be set up to observe the changes of Karez water level and water quality at any time. In order to bring Karez protection into the legal management track, Turpan has drafted the Regulations on Water Resources of Karez in Turpan and other relevant laws and regulations as early as three years ago, and submitted them to the People's Congress of the autonomous region for approval and implementation, but so far no reply has been received. It is understood that the region is also preparing to declare the establishment of the Karejing Nature Reserve to the state and the autonomous region to avoid new damage in the new development and construction.