Monday, June 16, 2008

Karez Irrigation System (Turpan)

Our first stop for the day in Turpan, China was the Karez Irrigation System. Turpan's Karez Irrigation System is among the three ancient major irrigation projects with the other two being Ling Canal in GuangXi and Dujiangyan Irrigation Project in Sichuan Province (I visited Dujiangyan (都江堰) in early 2006 during my visit to SiChuan Province and Jiuzhaigou).
Err? What is the Gigantic Lamp doing here? Have I mistakenly entered the City of Aladdin?
A visit to The Karez Museum. The greens in the photo are grape trees.

Walking pass the trellised walkway, which is ladened with grapes.

Grapes, grapes and grapes. But now is not the grape season yet. Two more months to go..

Illustration of surface construction of Karez Irrigation System. The Karez Irrigation System, with history of 2000+ years, is made up of a horizontal series of vertically dug wells that are linked by underground water canals to collect water from the watershed surface runoff from the base of the Tian Shan Mountains and the nearby the Flaming Mountains. The canals channel the water to the surface, taking advantage of the current provided by the gravity of the downward slope of the Turpan Depression. The canals are mostly underground to reduce water evaporation.
More info regarding Karez Irrigation System. Click on the picture (for a bigger view) only if you are really interested.. :P
Saja-saja ambik gambar ni.. Just for fun :P

The Moo Moo is cute mah, that's why I snap the photo :P

The vertically dug well that are linked to the connecting underground water canals.

The underground water canal. And I'm shocked when I reached the basement or underground, cos it is extremely cool underneath, just like the natural air conditioner. And it's so hot up there in the ground surface. What a relief..
The Karez Well. And yeah, the chinese and jawi writing again ;)

Wanna play hide and seek here? But better Keep Fingers Crossed KFC that you won't See Ghost if u really wanna play hide and seek. :P
Out of curiosity, I touched the water and it's cold. But of course I didn't taste it lah.. I'm not that adventurous :)

The water from the underground canals provide a stable water resource all year round as the weather is hot and dry in Turpan, and it seldom rains. Mmm... What's up next? ;)

17 comments:

mistipurple said...

can really play hide and seek.

rainbow angeles said...

i hide, u seek? :p

*curi grape to makan*

day-dreamer said...

Wah the underground canal very nice. :D

Chen said...

misti,
Haahaaha, most importantly don't drop into the water when playing hide & seek :P

R Angeles,
U hide, then i will go & makan grape. When u come out, i have finish eating the grapes oledi..
Kkaakakkaaka...

Pandai tak I? :P

DD,
And very cooling too :)
So syiok with the natural air cond there cos it's extremely hot up there in the ground surface.

L B said...

The Moo Moo looked more like a lion! No? Yes? Maybe? No fresh figs?

Anonymous said...

wakakakaka! u got see ghost or not there?

Trinity said...

wow.. what an adventure! that moo is truly cute! hahaha

Wyn said...

wah...really macam arab laa...keke...jiejie got rub rub dat lamp not? maybe got genie come out oh...=P

Doreen said...

Eeee....that tunnel....look haunted leh....sure no see ghost?

kyh said...

the moomoo really cute! :P

actually hor, jawi is a local term for the malay language written in arabic script. other languages like uighur and arabic, they dun call it jawi. In Xinjiang where most Uighur muslims live, the script is known as Uyghur Ereb Yéziqi. ;)

Chen said...

LB,
Hahaha, that will be a mutated lion then, with horns :P

No fresh figs woh..
Only lotsa lotsa raisins...
and unripe grapes
and mulberry
and apricots
but no fresh figs woh..
:(

ehon,
*choy choy choy*
No See Ghost
I see human only
and donkeys
and camels
and... and some other ocipala stuff
:P

trinity,
Haven't reach the highlight and the exciting part of the adventure yet.
Soon, very very soon ;)

Chen said...

wynn,
LOL..
I dowan to dirty my hands lah..

But the actual reason hoh..
is i dowan any genie to come out..
Cos i dowan to spoil my subsequent journey leh :P

doreen,
Hahaha, I think the "ghost" is scared of us leh (if there is any lah), since there is a big group mah.. 34 altogether (inclusive of 2 tour leaders :P)

kyh,
LOL.. must use local words so that everyone can understand mah. :P

What an ocipala long name "Uyghur Ereb Yéziqi". U really like history hoh? I watched the Uyghur ethnic dance performance that night :)

kyh said...

hahaaa i jus wiki out of curiosity. :P

Pink Cotton said...

wow very the intersting le...

eh eh u ever went to jiu zhai gou ka??u ever blog abt it?

Chen said...

kyh,
LOL. It's easy to find out information nowadays. Just google or wiki. Unlike those days... have to read books in the library :)

pink cotton,
Yeah, I went there during Chinese New Year in 2006, which is winter time in China. I wrote several posts (more than 10 posts) regarding Jiuzhaigou, Chengdu and SiChuan in the past (in the month of February 2006).

Just click on the label China at the sidebar if u are interested to read those old posts :)

moz monster said...

Hehehehe ... I learnt about the Karez system playing Scrabble ... quite a good scoring combination with Z and K in the word ...

Chen said...

Moz,
Hahaha, learning by playing Scrabble? lidat also can? Really very Ocipala liao :P

Next time u can also use the word Ocipala when playing scrabble. LOL