It is said that there are karez in more than 40 countries in the world. Turpan has more than 1000 karez wells with a total length of about 5,000 kilometers, which is close to the length of the Yellow River and equivalent to the mileage from Urumqi to Harbin. Known by geographers as the "underground canal", it is one of the three major projects in ancient China, which are equally famous as the Great Wall of Wan Li and the Grand Canal of Beijing and Hangzhou. Say it "great", first, because its role is extremely important; The second is because the project is huge and arduous. There are many comments on its functions, such as "Oasis Blood", "Oasis Spring", "Huozhou Lifeline" and "Paradise Spring". Carrey fully deserves such a reputation.
Turpan is located in the East Tianshan Basin, with an altitude of-140m and an area of 2,085 square kilometers below the altitude, making it one of the lowest areas in the world. Because it is far away from the ocean and surrounded by mountains, it is difficult for humid air to invade, and the rainfall is very small, with an average of only 19 mm for many years; However, the evaporation is very large, averaging over 3608 mm for many years, forming a very unique extremely dry and hot climate. Surface runoff is scarce, and the highest surface temperature in July can reach 80 degrees Celsius, which has been called "Huozhou" since ancient times. Many years ago, the Flame Mountain that Tang Priest and his disciples met on their way to the Western Heaven was located in the middle of the basin not far from Turpan. At that time, the Flame Mountain was burning with a flame of 800 li, which blocked Tang Sanzang's journey to the West. Thanks to the Monkey King's great skill, she borrowed the banana fan of Princess Tiefan from Millennium Society to fight the wind and rain, and put out the flame, so that she could cross the Flame Mountain and embark on the road of learning from the scriptures again. Of course, that's just a ghost story imagined by Mr. Wu Cheng'en, but we can also see that Turpan has been a very popular place since ancient times. During our visit to Turpan, we heard that many teenagers there have never seen rainy days. Whenever it rains heavily, people are as happy as seeing God and take their children out to enjoy the rain. Perhaps this statement is somewhat exaggerated, but it also tells the harsh fact that Turpan has little rain and drought. However, in such a hot and extremely dry place, there has been an "oasis farming economy" that has lasted for thousands of years. On the vast and barren Gobi desert, the oasis is lush, the grain is abundant, and the six livestock are prosperous. Crops such as wheat, barley, rice, corn, sorghum, beans, sesame, cotton, grapes and various melons and fruits are planted all the year round, and livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep are grazed on the hillside all the year round. Oasis farming has nurtured generations of people of all ethnic groups in Turpan, created unique folk customs and national cultural traditions, and cultivated Turpan into a bright "Pearl of the Silk Road". Friend, in Turpan, when you are tasting sweet grapes under the grape trellis and enjoying the famous "roasted whole sheep" ("hand-grabbed mutton") in the flavor restaurant, have you ever thought about how these world-famous rare fruit delicacies came from? Very simple, as you can imagine, it is produced by "oasis agriculture". However, have you ever thought about how "oasis agriculture" came into being? The flowing water under your feet will tell you that it comes from Karez. Oasis Farming flowed out of Karez, which is not a fantasy, nor a story of Journey to the West, but a miracle created by people for thousands of years. In Turpan, Xinjiang and all desert areas, there is an indisputable fact and an irrefutable knowledge that oases are scarce and extremely valuable. Where there is water, there will be oases; Where there is an oasis, there will be people; Only when people smoke can there be farming; Only farming can lead to human life. It is precisely because of the excavation of Karez by its ancestors that Turpan opened up an oasis and created an oasis agricultural civilization. Loulan, Milan and other ancient cities in the western regions, which were once the "Pearl of the Silk Road" in history, have been lost in the wind and sand because of lack of water, becoming loess piles in the vast desert. Think of Loulan and Milan under the desert, and then look at Turpan, the "pearl" in today's Gobi desert. Who else doesn't realize that Karez is really the lifeblood of the "fire island" and the source of the oasis?
The karez in Turpan is generally 1 m long, 0.7 m wide and tens of meters deep. Culverts are generally 1.6m high and 0.7m wide. Dig a shaft and a culvert. How much earthwork will it take? And how much soil has been dug from countless shafts on the ground and more than 5000 kilometers of underground culverts? I'm afraid no one can tell. At the Karez site, the schematic diagram hanging on the side wall of the canal tells people that both shafts and culverts were dug up by simple tools such as cutting earth man, willow basket and hemp rope. The sign says, "Dig a karez for years, or decades." The vastness and arduousness of this project, as well as the miracle of our ancestors' struggle between heaven and earth, are no less than "Yugong Mountain". Legend has it that there is an old man in Turpan who has dug wells all his life and dug hundreds of kilometers of karez by himself. People say that he is a contemporary "fool"! Such a huge and arduous project, with only a few simple tools to dig, can you imagine how many such "fools" are needed to dig more than 5,000 kilometers of karez in Turpan? "The deeds are really touching!" "It's amazing!" "Great, amazing!" The tourists by the well canal are full of praise. The canal water gurgled, so I took a sip by the canal. I can't help but gush out a few emotional poems from the bottom of my heart: "Digging wells and canals underground, sweating and flowing." Who knows the water in the cup is hard! "
Karez is not only a physical natural landscape, but also a spiritual humanistic landscape. Now, Karez has become a major tourist project in Turpan, attracting a large number of tourists every year. However, in the process of traveling, if you just regard Karez as a simple natural landscape, you may feel bored and have nothing to see. However, if you look at it as a cultural landscape, you may find that it has accumulated a unique cultural value that transcends time and space, and the more you look at it, the more interested you are. I think one of the values is that Karez inspired us: "God never closes a door, but he will open another door!" "Since' God' created mankind, it is bound to create a natural environment for human survival. There are beautiful and bad natural environments. The beautiful natural environment is certainly suitable for human survival, and the harsh natural environment will not be completely "unique", and there will inevitably be places for human survival and utilization. The question is whether it can be discovered and transformed. Turpan, "God" created the Gobi Desert for it, and at the same time created the usable "Tianshan Snow Water". The ancestors of Turpan, not afraid of the harsh environment, used their intelligence to find out the usable Tianshan snow water, created karez, drained the Tianshan snow water, created a "green treasure house" and transformed a "fire island" in the forbidden area of life into a "paradise on earth". The karez in Turpan is an example that human beings are good at getting along with nature and taking it from nature, so as to survive in a harsh environment. The cultural value of Karez embodies the philosophy of the relationship between man and nature. The ancestors of Turpan are good. The creation of Karez not only left rich material wealth, but also created valuable spiritual wealth. This is a valuable historical and cultural heritage. We should cherish it more, inherit it, carry it forward and create a better living environment for the genre.