China is so big, I want to visit it. Take you to a place you have been or have not been to.
Music Notes in the Sea of Death, Taklamakan Desert Highway
Desert Road in "Sea of Death"
The topography and landforms of Xinjiang can be summarized as "three mountains and two basins": the Altai Mountains in the north, the Kunlun Mountains in the south, and the Tianshan Mountains traverse the central part, dividing Xinjiang into two parts, the north and the south. Traditionally, the north of Tianshan Mountain is called Beijiang, and the south of Tianshan Mountain is called Nanjiang. The center of the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang is the largest in China and the sixth in the world. There are three Taklamakan Deserts as large as Zhejiang Province. Taklimakan ranks second in the world in the fluid desert. The strong wind blows fine sand, and after a gust of wind, the sand dunes in front of you may disappear, or there may be more sand dunes around you. The wind has become the porter of the dunes, which is hell for desert travelers, because you may be buried under the dunes at any time. The ancient Silk Road had to go around the desert along the north and south edges of the desert.
Xinjiang terrain
The Silk Road, divided into southern and northern routes
"Taklimakan", in Uighur, means "going in and not coming out". Crossing the desert can shorten the distance between north and south. Since ancient times, there have been people who have not believed in evil. Fa Xian, an eminent monk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, had the experience of crossing the sea of sand when he traveled westward to seek the Dharma: "If you want to cross the place, you don't know what you want to do. You can only use the bones of the dead as a sign." In 1895, Sven Hedin, a Swedish and world-renowned explorer, The first time he went deep into the Taklamakan Desert, he was full of ambitions, but due to his lack of experience, his expedition team was almost wiped out, and he was left alone in embarrassment to climb to the dry channel of the Hotan River. It was a spring that saved his life. Therefore, he gave Taklamakan the nickname "Sea of Death".
This is just the edge of the desert, and the shadow of an "oasis" can be seen in the distance
sea of sand, sea of death
How difficult it is to build a road on such a fluid "sea of death" of "a plate of loose sand", but why build a desert road?
The original intention of the desert road was to develop the oil resources in the Tarim Basin. In the 1970s and 1980s, huge reserves of oil resources were discovered in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang. The oil field is located in a desert, and transportation is an insurmountable problem. In order to better explore, develop, and transport oil and gas resources in the desert, the construction of desert roads is imperative. The first desert highway is called the Tarim Desert Oil Highway. Started in 1993, nearly 20 scientific research institutions participated, nearly 200 experts and technicians made unremitting efforts, and all the problems faced were overcome. With the concerted efforts of all participants, it took two and a half years to complete the Tarim Desert Highway.
The Luntai-Minfeng Desert Highway was completed and opened to traffic. This is the first desert highway in China, the first floating desert highway in the world, and the longest desert highway in Guinness Book of Records. Chinese experts and technicians have creatively adopted the "strong foundation and thin surface" structure construction road construction technology (use geotextiles to fix sand as the roadbed, use dry shock to make the roadbed firm, and then apply thin asphalt pavement), and use reeds abundant in Xinjiang to build roads. Sand fixation such as "reed fence" and "reed grid", China's desert road construction technology is at the leading level in the world.
Reed Fence Sand Fixation
Reed square sand fixation
Summarizing the experience of the first desert road construction, using many new technologies and research results of desert road construction in my country, the second desert road in Xinjiang, Aksu-Hotian Road, started construction in 2005 and completed in 2007. Its significance does not need to be repeated. up.
I came to Hotan from Kashgar in 2008. I wanted to experience this magical and spectacular desert road for myself. I took a bus from Hotan to Kuqa and crossed the desert road. Compared with the first Luntai-Minfeng Desert Highway, the Hotan-Aksu Desert Highway is built along the Hotan River, and the flow of wind and sand is much smaller.
Desert landscape all the way
Populus euphratica in the desert is sporadic, not as beautiful as the photographer's lens, but this is the beauty of life in the desert
Going out of the desert soon, small shrubs like tamarisk began to appear. Red willow also has the function of preventing wind and strengthening mountains.
The road condition of the desert road is very good. The bus crosses the desert for 5 hours and arrives at the city of Alar, which is already an oasis.
After passing this oasis, the desert tour began again. Desert and desert are two different landforms.
In addition to the two desert highways opened in 1995 and 2007, the construction of the third desert highway crossing the "Sea of Death" Taklimakan started again in 2017 and will be open to traffic in the near future. Maybe I'll come again, how about you?
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