Picture of the Week: Oil, Oil Everywhere

Oil, oil, everywhere

Along the road between Karamay and Urhe in northern Xinjiang there is a stretch of desert landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see and is dotted with innumerable oil rigs. In Chinese they call them “Christmas Trees” (is that what we call it in English?) and most of them toil day and night pumping oil from the ground to be refined and piped all the way to Shanghai.

Picture of the Week: Skiing in the Desert

 Skiing in the Desert

It may come as a shock to some of you that there’s very little to do in a desert during the middle of winter. One of the few outdoor activities, believe it or not, is skiing. The city of Karamay is an oil city and despite its desolate location it has the excess cash to paint a desert with snow.

For most people accustomed to real skiing in the mountains, the hills here would be described as bunny slopes. Still, I can’t deny the fun factor. Equipped with a “chairlift” that is actually a rope and a disc you fit between your legs, you can slowly climb the hill to get a bird’s eye view of the surrounding desert dotted with oil rigs. Two minutes later you’re at the bottom ready to start the process over again.

That’s not to say that there aren’t great places to ski here in Xinjiang, I just don’t live near the mountains. I never skied much before anyway. I would be remiss if I failed to tell you that less than 10 seconds after this photo was taken (that’s me in the blue) I sustained multiple bruise injuries and a jammed thumb during my inadvertent - yet beautifully-executed - cartwheel on ice.

Did I say bunny slope? I meant a black diamond…really.

Religion in the Xinjiang Desert: Worship of An Unlikely Object

I'd like to introduce you to one of the most popular buildings in Karamay, a small city of only 200,000 people here in Xinjiang.  This building of worship was built only a few years ago and to the naked eye looks similar to what you'd find on many street corners in the United States.  Just like its western counterparts, this place provides comfort and refuge from the harsh realities of life as well as a community of people who share a common passion.  It represents the only place of worship that is not only accepted by the local government but also boasts a large membership their ranks.

Inside the main auditorium, however, you won't find mass seating, a choir loft or a pulpit.  It isn't really a church although it could be considered a religion.  Here in the middle of the desert it is a worship of the one thing most sacred and valuable to life here: the religion of water.

Up until only a couple of decades ago water was a scarce commodity in this part of Xinjiang.  The only reason this city even exists is thanks to all the oil that lies beneath the arid surface.  Back in the 1950's and 60's water used to be collected in large containers and transported by camels back to the oil workers.  The water was then rationed, allowing each individual only one basin of water per day in which to bathe, wash clothes, and cook.

 

 

Fast forward to the present, thanks to the series of reservoirs and diverted rivers, every household is provided with running water while sprinklers water the lush gardens of the beautiful new city park.  A small, man-made river cuts through the center of town eventually draining into the large town reservoir.  Every night during the warmer months this river walk is lined with people who come to enjoy the plentiful water while trying to forget that they are living in the midst of a very dry desert.

The main attraction along this river is a spectacular water show that overshadows anything I have seen back in America.  Water dances to music in choreographed movements while being shot as a high as 70 meters into the sky.  The city has somehow taken the region's most scarce commodity and turned it into a form of entertainment.

 

 

To top it all off, as if all this worship has garnered the favor Poseidon, weather has shifted and precipitation has noticeably increased even during the three years that I have lived here.  The city streets, which were originally built without a drainage system due to the lack of rains in the past, now easily flood during the spring months.

It is common knowledge that atheism is the official religion of the Chinese government, but one look at many cities in Xinjiang will reveal monuments to the one religion they do promote - the worship of water.

Riding a Camel in the Taklamakan Desert

Oh, the Xinjiang sun.  Even with sunglasses on I was squinting to keep from going blind.  My forehead, which during fair weather tends to drip small beads of sweat, now felt like a small waterfall was running down my face.  For ten full minutes I hadn't moved from this very spot arguing with a bearded man who was missing a tooth and looked like he hadn't bathed for weeks.  I've bargained for quite a few things during my time here in China - heck, I'd even bartered for the shirt and sunglasses I was wearing at the time - but I had never run into a man as stubborn as this camel herder.  Yet here I was in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert, the largest desert in China, making a fuss over five dollars to ride a camel.  And it was hot.

  

  

It's not like camels enjoy being ridden.  At least they don't look like it.  I'm sure if the camel could talk he'd tell me and his toothless friend to bug off and let him sit peacefully in the shade.  I'm not even sure I like to ride the camels.  Every time I get on one I feel like I'm going to break his back, and let's just say I weigh a bit more than a piece of straw.

  

  

Even so, Mr. Stubborn Camel Herder felt his camels were worth a lot more than I was willing to pay.  So there I was, standing in the blistering heat for over 10 minutes bickering and yelling until we finally agreed on a price that didn't make me feel like I was being robbed.

The problem - at least as I see it - is that you can't just walk into a desert.  Well, technically you can, but everybody's going to look at your pictures and say "So...where are all the camels?"  It's like going to to Disneyland without getting a picture hugging Mickey or one of his friends.  It's sheer insanity to even consider such a thing.  Equipped with this knowledge herders easily take advantage of tourists like us, you just have to accept that fact going in.

Thankfully my adventure into the desert between the two humps of a camel was well worth the money.  For 20 minutes my unhappy animal slowly followed our guide through desert vegetation until...poof!...we emerged into an endless panorama of sand dunes.  It was beautiful yet at the same time somehow terrifying.  For about 20 minutes I got off my camel and sprinted like a little kid up and down the sand dunes, quickly coming to the realization that it takes a lot of energy to run in sand.  I couldn't imagine making any sort of lengthy trek along terrain like this.

 

  

My camel, who was looking at me as if holding a grudge because I had forced him out here, reluctantly stood up and provided my transportation back to civilization.  Next time, I decided, I'll take a dune buggy or a small aircraft to enjoy the scenery but at least now I can say that I have ridden a camel in the desert.