Is it the heroic spirit of "dusty desert, the red flag half rolled out of Yuanmen", or the tragic desolation of "the desert is like snow, and the Yanshan moon is like a hook", or the grandeur of "the desert is lonely and the long river sets the yen"?
However, no matter what kind of feelings, when you stand in the Taklimakan desert in Xinjiang, you will know that those feelings will never be seen again if they are not a dust in this desert.
Taklimakan Desert is the largest desert in Xinjiang and China, the tenth largest desert in the world and the second largest mobile desert in the world. In Uyghur, Taklimakan Desert is a "big desert under the mountain", also known as the "sea of death".
It is about 1000 km long and 400 km wide. Distributed in Kashgar, Hotan, Aksu, Bayinguoleng and other places in Xinjiang. Most of the sand dunes flowing here are between 100 meters and 200 meters, and the highest can reach 300 meters. At the hottest time in summer, the temperature of sand surface is as high as seventy or eighty degrees. The annual evaporation in the desert is 2500-3400 mm, but the precipitation is insufficient100 mm.
In fact, the Taklimakan desert surrounded by mountains is not short of water. Four rivers, Hotan River, Yeerqiang River, Kashigar River and Aksu River, which originated in Tianshan Mountain and Karakorum Mountain, finally converge into Tarim River, the longest inland river in China and the fifth largest inland river in the world. Tarim River flows along the northern edge of the desert, through Aksu, Aral, Shaya, Lunnan and Luobu Village, and finally flows into taitema lake. Among them, Hotan River runs through the hinterland of Taklimakan desert from south to north.
We often say that when God closes a door, he opens a window. In this seemingly taboo ocean of life, explorers have discovered abundant groundwater resources and oil and gas. This seems to be God's favor to Xinjiang, but where there are underground resources, it will always be a desert, while where there are no resources, it is beautiful.
In order to facilitate the exploration and exploitation of desert oil, the state began to build a desert highway running through the north and south in March, 1993. It took two and a half years to1September, 1995. The first desert highway connecting G3 15 national highway from the wheel platform of G3 14 national highway to Minfeng was finally completed, with a total length of 522 kilometers, including 422 kilometers.
Then in 2007, China built a second desert highway, from Alar City to Hotan City. This highway has been merged into G2 17 National Highway, and G2 17 Line also includes the most famous online celebrity highway in Xinjiang: Duku Highway.
At present, there are still two desert highways under construction: Aral to Qiemo, of which Qiemo to Tazhong was opened to traffic in 2003, and Tazhong to Aral was approved for construction in 20 15. This is also the third desert highway.
The fourth desert highway is from Yuli to Qiemo, and the survey and design of this line began on 20 17, and the external bidding began.
However, what we usually call desert highway refers to the first desert highway, also called Tarim desert oil highway. This road passes through Lunnan, Tahe and Tazhong oil fields, which is the main battlefield for oil exploration and development and the main oil and gas field base of PetroChina and Sinopec.
It was more than ten years ago that I first heard about the desert highway. Everyone who talked about it at that time looked incredible. What a great pioneering work it will be to build roads in such a desert!
On October 20 13 10, after crossing the Dooku Highway, the householder decided to take me for a walk on the desert highway.
Although it has been six or seven years now, every time I turn out the photos taken at that time and look at the travel notes written at that time, I will still be filled with emotion.
Before I saw the desert highway, I had imagined what kind of highway it was. Are there endless deserts on both sides of the highway, with no vegetation, no signs of life, no head in front and no tail behind?
As soon as I left Luntai County, I saw a street sign that read: Desert Highway. I don't know if this is the legendary desert highway, but both sides of the highway are only desert areas, not real deserts.
All the way forward, there are endless red willows, Haloxylon ammodendron and Populus euphratica forests on both sides of the road. There is also a famous Populus euphratica Park here. At this time, the leaves in northern Xinjiang are yellow, but here they are still green. Although the weather is cool, there is no smell of autumn.
Writing about desert means writing about Populus euphratica. Perhaps what we know best about Populus euphratica is the legend about three thousand years. Although Hu Yangshu's growing period is only 200 years.
Every Hu Yangshu we see now, whether growing or dying, we have no way of knowing how many years it has lived here. We only know that they are struggling to grow in the growing desert and living hard in the arid desert. They put their roots deep into the desert, and while absorbing groundwater, they firmly fixed the desert at their feet.
But what we don't know is that it takes a long time for Hu Yangshu to grow naturally. July and August are the season when Populus euphratica seeds mature. The seeds of Populus euphratica will drift around like catkins in the wind, and they will look for suitable growing points along the river bank.
Only when all the conditions are suitable will it take root and sprout. However, even if they grow seedlings, they will face all kinds of natural disasters during their growth.
Populus euphratica, which has grown up in various forms, has experienced various natural tests. So when we stand in front of them and sigh, praise, praise, for them, this may just be the most common sense of superiority and inferiority in nature.
And when it takes root deeply, absorbs the surplus saline-alkali in the land, and transforms the absorbed saline-alkali into people in the form of Populus euphratica, I think maybe this is the reason why people really praise it, because it also has a nice name: saline-alkali sweeper.
So when I first saw Populus euphratica Park, I decided to have a good look. Although I can get in close contact with Populus euphratica at any time in the corridor of Baili Populus euphratica forest in the back alley.
However, when I think that there is a beacon tower of the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago and the Silk Road passes through here, there is always an impulse to find out except those beautiful Populus euphratica forests in the Tarim River.
But ... when I got off the bus, unconsciously, swarms of mosquitoes surrounded me like bombers. In an instant, all the exposed parts swelled up gloriously. I kept waving with an empty hand, but I still couldn't catch up with the mosquitoes around me. These mosquitoes seemed to be trained snipers, surrounded me and bit me, leaving me with no strength to fight back and finally ran away.
I never thought that my curiosity and impulse would be defeated by mosquitoes. Now that I think about it, I may not have seen its best side yet. Now I will include it in my future travel plan, visit every place of it carefully, and then bring them to everyone perfectly.
Standing in front of the zero kilometer mileage sign of Tarim Desert Oil Highway, I knew that I finally saw the legendary desert highway, to be precise, it was a highway in a flowing desert, and we had walked nearly 100 kilometers of desert before, not in quicksand.
If you just build a road in a stagnant desert, it may not attract people's attention, but the essence of this desert road is to build such a road in a flowing desert without being troubled by quicksand for so many years.
After entering zero kilometers, both sides of the originally deserted road suddenly turned green. What flashed outside the window was no longer a golden desert, but two rows of lush plants.
Suddenly, I remembered the billboard standing next to the zero kilometer road sign. Although there was a layer of fine sand, I just took two pictures at random. Then I turned on the camera and saw the following introduction:
Where there is water, there is life. When the abundant water from the snow-capped mountains is injected into the Taklimakan desert, they have already laid the groundwork for life that can survive in this desert.
In fact, as soon as you enter the desert highway, you will see the small squares on both sides of the road, which are grass squares laid to prevent the desert from flowing. Although these small squares effectively fix the quicksand on both sides of the road, the dust rolled up in the desert wind season can still pass through these squares to reach the road every year. Planting these sand-fixing plants is like a green dragon, entrenched on both sides of the road. Whenever the sand blows, they can hold the sandmonster tightly.
When I came back to see the photos taken on the Internet, I suddenly felt that these two dragons, like two green arteries, were continuously feeding the once dead sea with the fountain of life.
We have been walking in the green corridor, which makes me feel in a trance for a moment. But when we got to the high slope, we looked at both sides, and it was golden and lifeless.
The boss said that this is someone specially hired by the oil company to live here and water these trees to keep them growing. When he said this, I didn't notice that there would be a well house every once in a while, some in front of it and some in front of it.
We stopped at random in front of a well house on the roadside. As soon as we stopped, someone came out of the room. A very simple and honest person knows at a glance that he has just come from the countryside. Sure enough, they came from Sichuan in 12, and they are husband and wife. There are such couples in the well houses along the way. Their job is to water these trees on the roadside every day.
Such a well room is located every four kilometers, one * * *, with 108. After greeting the master guarding the well, we got their permission to enter the desert behind the tree.
Standing on the boundary ridge between trees and desert, there is a rolling desert with direct sunlight as far as the eye can see. At this time, there is no shelter between the sun and the earth, and even the hazy dust is gone. Although it has entered October, it is very hot here. Take off your shoes and go barefoot. The sand under your feet is very hot but clean.
My daughter and I chased and played on the sand dunes. When we are tired, we lie on the sand dunes. The sky is straight ahead, blue and a little white. The sun is getting hotter and hotter, and the sand dunes are almost untenable. Master beckoned us to get up. It's time to go, thinking that it will be late tonight, and there are still three or four hundred kilometers to go. Although I can't bear to leave, I still get up. Stand up, covered in sand, but gently shake, the body is clean, nothing.
Back in the shade of the computer room, the weather is much cooler. At this time, I sighed, it's good to have trees and plants! Otherwise, in this place, it won't be long before people are dehydrated by heat. Chatting with the left-behind teachers, I learned that they all came from the countryside and are now almost sixty years old. Only an old couple like them can keep this place.
The water pumped from underground can't be used because the salt is too alkaline, and their drinking water is sent from the base in the tower. Every couple here are not far apart, but it is never convenient to meet.
Their living conditions are also very simple, simple daily necessities and simple dietary materials. For eight months in a year, they keep the boundless loneliness, live by the desert and are accompanied by green plants. Only they can keep this life. They gave this desolate desert beauty and life, but left loneliness and loneliness to themselves.
When I saw that sentence in the desert: "There is only a desolate desert, there is no desolate life", I suddenly burst into tears. The desolate desert, once called the sea of death, is no longer desolate. People who have never lived a miserable life. With their desolate life, the once desolate desert is full of vitality.
What I regret is that I didn't take pictures of them for fear of disturbing them. However, every time I read this travel book, I always think of such an ordinary and simple old couple.
It is because they and another couple 107 whom we have never met before that they are willing to put their lives in this once desolate desert in exchange for a life that passers-by feel is not desolate.
Two thousand years ago or even earlier, there was a splendid civilization in the western regions. At that time, most of the 36 countries in the western regions that were active in this land existed around the Taklimakan desert.
However, with the progress of history, most countries have disappeared in the long river of history or in the long yellow sand of Taklimakan.
Once known as the exquisite ancient city of Pompeii in the East, in the short history of the Western Regions, it created the Niya civilization that attracted the attention of later generations. For many years, countless scholars have racked their brains for the mystery of Lu Wen, which archaeologists have never understood, and the disappearance of ancient countries, which have never been guessed.
Only this silent desert witnessed everything, and then covered everything with their dust.
Huang Sha was speechless. It buried all traces in the sand. Only when the wind blows, it shows some clues to attract those who want to explore the secrets of the ancient country.
When the drums and horns in the dream have long gone with the wind, what is left to future generations is a desert that hides ancient secrets that have not been solved for thousands of years. The wind has been blowing for thousands of years, and the dust has fallen with the wind, falling and rising. The legendary story buried in the depths of the sea of death has already drifted away in the sound of camel bells.
And this bell will always echo in the dreams of desert followers. ......