Tazhong
| Tǎzhōng Zhèn 塔 中 镇 Tazhong |
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 1 ′ N , 83 ° 37 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | People's Republic of China | ||
| region | Northwest China | ||
| District-free city | Bayingolin | ||
| circle | Qarqan / Quiemo | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | CN | ||
Tazhong ( Chinese 塔 中 镇, Pinyin Tǎzhōng Zhèn ) is a Chinese planned city in the Chinese district of Qarqan / Quiemo in the autonomous district of Bayingolin , Xinjiang .
The first part of the name,塔, tǎ is here as a symbol of塔克拉玛干, Tǎkèlāmǎgān to understand the Chinese name for the desert Taklamakan , but the name of a Turkic language is such. B. Uighur : Täklimakan . The second part of the name,中, zhōng , means "middle", but also stands for "China", (中国, zhōngguó ).
overview
The city's first structures were erected in the middle of the Taklamakan restricted area in the mid-1990s . The few unauthorized aerial photographs of Tazhong from this period show an asphalt surface in the middle of the sandy desert with vehicles, barracks and containers that were grouped like a wagon castle and from which around 360 oil production facilities in the desert were supplied. The head of this ethnically purely Chinese base was oil production pioneer Xu Fuchen. Critics see Tazhong as part of a sinization strategy by the Chinese government.
The settlement was very difficult due to the desert location: Since two different wind systems prevail in the Taklamakan sandy desert , the shifting dunes , which tower up to 300 meters above the solid ground, are in constant motion, which is difficult to control even with the planting of vegetation can. The surface temperature of the soil can reach 67 ° C during the day in summer, with differences from the night temperature of over 40 ° C. The average annual rainfall is only 100 mm; the previous annual minimum precipitation was 45 mm. Nevertheless, scientific experiments were carried out in climatically shielded greenhouses in order to test a self-sufficient supply.
On July 24, 2015, Tazhong was declared a city and the only municipality in its extensive administrative area (after an official assessment from May 31). The city's main employers include PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Branch , Sinopec Northwest Oilfield Branch , Daqing Oilfield Tadong Company, and service and utility companies for those employed there. The total population in the administrative area is said to be around 20,000 people, 90% of whom are seasonal workers . Correspondingly, other sources only give a permanent population of around 1,000 or 2,000 people, who are predominantly state employees.
The city is connected to the outside world by a 500 km long road built at the same time as the city, the edges of which have been planted throughout to protect against sandstorms: the north-south route Tarim Desert Highway . During the pioneering days, Tazhong could only be reached with special vehicles equipped to withstand fine sand. In 1997 the next outpost on this road was only 220 km away from Tazhong. Since then, further outposts have been set up in the “urban area” along the desert highway, and the planting belts have also been expanded.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Reza / Andreas Wolfers: Takla Makan: Campaign in China's largest desert , In: Geo 12/1997 , pp. 88-104.
- ↑ a b Baidu article (Chinese).
- ↑ Information from the Bayingolin District Government (Chinese).
- ↑ sohu.com , February 2021 (Chinese, illustrated).
- ↑ 163.com , March 2021 (Chinese, illustrated).