Brief Introduction : The karez with the Great wall and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are well known as three major projects in ancient China. The karez was originally found in Han dynasty 2000 years ago. It is one kind of special ways to draw water from underground to the surface ground by level set construction, which is mainly used for irrigating farmlands and residential water. The way is very suitable for the foothills and alluvial fan edge zones,which is a particular underground water conservancy project to the ground slope to draw underground water in Turpan basin. Turpan is a famous city along the ancient silk road, which is called fire state because it is very hot and dry over there. The annual average rainfall is only 16mm in Turpan, but the capacity of evaporation is over 3000 mm. The surface water is easier to be evaporated , but karez can enough reduce the evaporation of water. Although it is dry and hot with less rain water in Turpan, there are Bogda mountain up to 5445m in the north which is the peak of Tianshan mountain and Kalaou mountain in the west, from which a lot of melt snow and rain water flows down to the valley in summer and seeps into Gobi desert to form an undercurrent which provides abundant underground water for karez. The construction of karez are mainly composed of vertical shaft,underground channel, surface channel and reservoir . Every 20-30m one vertical shaft will be built. Normally one single karez stretches around 3-8 km and some stretch over 10 km. According to the statistics in 1962 there are over 1700 karez in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region , and most of them are in Turpan basin of Xinjiang which reaches over 1100 and extends over 5000 km if they are connected. So the karez is also compared as the underground great wall or underground canal. It is of great significance to develop local agriculture production and meet the needs of residents. The local government is applying for intangible cultural heritage for karez.

How does the karez work ?

      

               The  Diagram of  Karez  Structure                                                                                           Digging  the  underground  channel

      

             Carrying the earth out by vertical shaft                                                                      Ventilation for underground channel by vertical shaft

The construction of karez consists of four parts, which are vertical shaft, underground channel,surface channel and reservoir. At that time the first thing for the local farmer was to find the water resource at the foot of Tianshan mountain . After the location of water resource was confirmed, they started to dig vertical shafts from the village to the foot of Tianshan mountain. The main use of vertical shafts is to carry the earth out and ventilate for underground when they dug the underground channels. The vertical shafts and underground channels were continuously dug to the foot of Tianshan mountain, where was the water resource of underground . Every 20-30m one vertical shaft will be dug, and the underground channel will be dug as well continously. The depth of every virtical shaft is 5-100 m, which depends on the distance to the foot of Tianshan mountain. The length of each underground channel is around 5-30km. So one  karez normally took about 10-15 years to finish at that time. After all construction of underground channel was done, the underground water would flow down smoothly through the underground channel to the surface channel and reservoir because there is a height difference of over 1400 m between the foot of Tianshan mountain and the villages.

How to tell the right direction of digging accurately as staying underground? 

There were two ways to ensure the two vertical shafts were accurately connected by underground channels at that time.

      

                   Wood  Stick  Positioning  Method                                                                                     Oil  Lamp  Positioning  Method

The first : Wood Stick Positioning Method---One wooden stick was seperately set above two adjacent vertical shafts .The two sticks must be at the same horizontal line.The ends of two sticks must be kept at the same line. At the same time there is also one wood stick seperately hung underground of the two vertical shafts , which must be parallel to the wood stick above the vertical shaft. Then the farmers just followed the direction of wood sticks underground to keep digging forward,which made sure the direction must be right.

The second: Oil Lamp Positioning Method—The oil lamp was put in the middle of the underground channel. Then the farmer turned his back on the oil lamp and kept digging following his own shadow directly. The direction must be correct.

What is the advantages for the construction of the karez in Turapn?

1, Abundant Water Resource Underground-- There are Bogda mountain up to 5445 m in the north of Turpan which is the peak of Tianshan mountain and Kalaou mountain in the west, from which a lot of melt snow and rain water flows down to the valley in summer and seeps into Gobi desert to form an undercurrent which provides abundant underground water for karez.

2,Solid Textured Earth--- The sand gravels under the Gobi desert of Turpan are cemented by sticking clay and calcium thing, which is of solid textures. So after the karez was completely dug, it can not collapse.

3, Underground Working Way---The karez draws water from underground, which can not be affected by the climate, sandstorm ,wind and evaporation from surface. It is very suitable for the local natural conditions.

 

Introduction of Karez Folk Custom Park:

     

The Karez Folk Custom Park is situated in the east of Turpan City 4 km. It is a famous scenic spot with the theme of Karez Culture and history. The tourists will visit the proto types and museums of Karez, which is a good place for relaxing in the cool karez. After you enter the scenic area, you will see some model sculptures to show you how the ancient people to dig the karez. Next will be the Karez Museum, which is a good place to systematically understand the history and culture of Karez. Then you go underground to visit a karez irrigation site of which the locals are most proud .

Entrance Fee: 40 yuan RMB

Opening Time: 10:00-18:30 (Oct. 21--Apr.20); 08:00--20:00 (Apr.21--Oct.20); 

Visiting Time Normally: 2 hours

Better Seasonsto Visit: Normally it is better to travel in Turpan from March to September. However,during June and July normally the temperature is above 40 degrees in the daytime ,which is the hottest time in Turpan.  Besides, the Turpan Grape Festival will be held in August, during that season, tourists can taste the grapes and enjoy various of traditional Uighur activities and performances, such as Dawazi performance,Mukam folk songs and dances ,etc. . In September, normally the weather is moderately cool,which is the harvest time. It’s quite worthy to visit Turpan in September,where the pleasant smell of fruits is spreading everywhere.

Travel Tips: The Karez Folk Custom Park is not so large, whichtakes about 2 hours to visit. If you wanna shop or eat and so on, it will takelonger. If you would like to take an experience of the traditional Uighur life,you may stay in the hotel near scenic area for one night. The price of hotelroom is about 300-400 RMB.

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