6 | Monday, July 20, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | DAILY CHINA Tajik ethnic people ready to hit new heights

URUMQI — At the intersection of the two main roads of Tashikurgan Tajik autonomous county stands a landmark sculpture of a flying eagle. The eagle is one of the most revered totems for 33,000 people from the Tajik ethnic group living in the county in the Uygur autonomous region. Located on the Pamir Plateau, Tashikurgan is the only Tajik auton­ omous county in China, with more than 80 percent of its 41,000 resi­ Tajik dancers perform at a folk dents belonging to the Tajik ethnic festival in Tashikurgan Tajik group. autonomous county, Xinjiang China has vowed to leave no Uygur autonomous region, on ethnic group behind in ending June 25. HU HUHU / XINHUA poverty and achieving a moder­ ately prosperous society in all respects. The once impoverished The road between the county seat county managed to lift itself out of and Datong was improved in 2018, poverty last year and is making slashing the travel time by half to strides toward becoming an all­ about four hours. around prosperous society. By the end of this month, a sta­ ble electricity supply will be pro­ Mountain trap vided to Datong via power lines Ethnic Tajik people living in which will replace energy generat­ Tashikurgan are known as the ed by photovoltaic panels and a “eagles of the high mountains”, but small hydropower station. it was never easy to move freely on “It’s no longer just mountains. Horses race around a track in , Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, in May. ZHANG XIUKE / FOR CHINA DAILY the Pamir Plateau due to the rug­ We feel connected with the rest of ged terrain. Tashikurgan, with an the world,” Dure said. average altitude higher than 4,000 meters above sea level, is located in Aiming high a cluster of mountains. Warxidi village is close to several For local residents, the moun­ popular tourist spots in Tashikur­ Horse industry gallops ahead tains posed a challenge to their gan. Maynurgul Ikmu, 30, was not daily life and work. There were no aware she could benefit financially roads in many villages and the from visitors coming to her area small trails could be easily until 2015, when a tourist service destroyed by floods or mudslides. center was established 1 km from In Rasekam, the remotest vil­ her home. in Xinjiang with fresh ideas lage in the county, residents lived Tashikurgan has seen a growing in 12 gullies. number of visitors drawn by the It would take about a month for county’s snow­capped mountains, Regional government hopes advances will help it earn high profits this year Dawut Uxur, former Party chief of verdant grassland and Tajik customs the village, to visit all the villagers by such as the eagle dance and polo. either horse, yak or camel. A trip to Many travelers have visited May­ By AYBEK ASKHAR in Urumqi “One kilogram of PMU can sell for the county seat, more than 200 kilo­ nurgul’s house to taste both tradi­ [email protected] 4.3 yuan to 7.8 yuan,” said Erbolsun meters away, would take five days. tional milk tea and Tajik culture. Abdukhan, a Kazak herdsman liv­ “Some aged villagers had never In 2016, Maynurgul built an inn The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous ing in Ili’s . ventured beyond their village. It’s to house tourists with the encour­ region has been exploring multiple “I earned over 20,000 yuan from just mountains everywhere,” agement and support of the local ways to expand its equine industry, December to March, the prime sea­ Dawut, 66, said. government. She has learned to from breeding horses for police for­ son for collecting PMU.” The mountainous landscape cook new dishes to cater to visitors’ ces to mounted tours and medical In the past, animal welfare activ­ also made it difficult to access elec­ diverse tastes, and performs the products. ists in North America criticized the tricity, tap water and communica­ traditional Tajik eagle dance for The region has 57 million hectares way pregnant mare’s urine was col­ tion signals. Dawut had never tourists and sells handmade Tajik of grassland and is home to 730,000 lected as the horses were kept in watched television until 2017. souvenirs. horses, which is more than 20 per­ confined spaces for lengthy periods. However, the mountains failed Her family earned more than cent of China’s equine population, However, Xu said his company had to dampen China’s determination 150,000 yuan ($21,190) last year, according to the National Bureau of addressed the issue. to lift people of all ethnic groups and bought a car in January. “It’s the Statistics. With six different breeds, “Our company collects PMU from out of poverty. Infrastructure best thing that’s happened to me in Xinjiang has the country’s richest about 400 local households, half of development played a key role in recent years,” Maynurgul said. horse resources. them poor families, and we have making life easier for everyone. More than 1.1 million trips were In April, the regional government strict management rules and a fixed After living in the mountains for made to Tashikurgan last year, introduced a plan to promote the daily collection quota to ensure that 47 years, Dure Jarman, 49, a villager bringing in more than 1 billion horse industry this year and acceler­ the PMU is collected in a humane in Datong township, could finally yuan in tourism revenue. The ate the development of related sec­ way,” he said. stop worrying about earthquakes. county made it onto the top tors in Xinjiang. Xinjiang produces more than A 5.5 magnitude earthquake national tourist destination list According to the plan, the output 5,000 metric tons of PMU a year, jolted Tashikurgan in 2017, damag­ late last year. of the horse industry in the region is which is about a quarter of the ing more than 3,000 houses made The county mayor, Guluzar Abu­ expected to be valued at 9.5 billion world’s total production. of earth and rock. rahman, said plant cultivation, yuan ($1.34 billion) this year. The “The PMU production line in Xin­ New houses were built with sup­ herding, tourism and border trade plan aims to further develop the jiang is the first in China, and it port from the central and local were the pillars for Tashikurgan to horse­breeding system, build more helped the country to break the governments, and many residents achieve sustainable growth, with breeding facilities, promote equine­ overseas monopoly of PMU,” Yao, were relocated to places more suit­ tourism the major focus. related tourism and organize horse from the Horse Industry Research able for living and work. In April, construction began on racing events. Institute, said. Dure’s new 80­square­meter Tashikurgan Airport, expected to be house is located about 25 km away the highest­altitude airport in Xinji­ Modernization Tourism boost from the county seat and is ang. It is expected to improve trans­ The results of the regional govern­ Riding a horse in the mountains is equipped with a washing machine, portation and boost the county’s ment’s 2016 modernization plan for always a tempting experience for a gas stove and a cooker. The house tourism market. The airport is the industry, which focused on From top: Kazak herders join in a horse race during a folk festival in visitors to Xinjiang, and more local also has a yard and a shed. scheduled to be completed before improving the quality and value of , Xinjiang, on May 31. LIU XIN / CHINA NEWS SERVICE Tourists herdsmen are willing to rent their For those who chose to stay in the June 2022. Xinjiang horses as well as job crea­ ride horses around Kanas Scenic Area in Altay, Xinjiang. own horses and benefit from the mountains, infrastructure and liv­ tion, are already being seen. WANG CHUN / FOR CHINA DAILY booming growth in tourism. ing standards have also improved. XINHUA “To train more professionals, the “Two hours on horseback means a regional government cooperated net income of some 160 yuan,” said with Xinjiang Agricultural Universi­ than 30 million yuan on improving and went through a rigorous screen­ Serik Khulabek, a member of a horse­ ty and established hippology studies the infrastructure of its stud farms ing process before they were accept­ riding tourism service team in Ili. in the university’s College of Animal and over 20 million yuan on breeding ed by the unit. “During peak season, I can take three Science,” said Yao Xinkui, head of local horses with better quality ones. tourists for a horse ride every day. The the university’s Horse Industry Chen Weigang, a supervisor at Hormone therapy horse is more like a cash cow now.” Research Institute. one stud farm, said Zhaosu Ili hors­ For ethnic Kazak herdsmen living Yao said this was yet another way “Two hundred students who stud­ es had been sold to equestrian clubs on the steppes of Ili, collecting preg­ for herdsmen to generate income, ied hippology have graduated, and across the country. “The perform­ nant mare urine from their herds and the Xinjiang horse industry we believe more students will study ance of the horses has been recog­ has become a new income source. has great potential. “I believe with a hippology.” nized by many people,” Chen said. Xu Zhiyong, general manager of modern, integrated and sustaina­ in Ili Kazak auton­ In September, 12 horses from Xin­ Xinjiang Nuziline Bio­pharmaceuti­ ble horse industry in the future, omous prefecture has 120,000 hors­ jiang were sent to Dalian, Liaoning cal, which focuses on PMU drugs, society and individuals in Xinjiang es, which makes it the county with province, for the city’s mounted unit said the urine is processed for estro­ will benefit a lot,” he said. the highest number of horses per of policewomen. The horses, which gen that can be used in hormone capita in the country. were bred by an animal husbandry replacement therapy for women Mao Weihua in Urumqi After 2016, Zhaosu invested more company, have an even temperament experiencing menopause. contributed to the story. Tourists visit a relic site in Tashikurgan. LIU XIN / CHINA NEWS SERVICE

“There was a tap water supply in the is a deserted puddle that reminds Over 1.7 billion yuan ($240 mil­ Clean water? Villagers can drink to that early 1990s, but not stable. So we people of their parched past. lion) was offered as financial sup­ used both puddle water and tap Hebibulla Tohti, a 68­year­old vil­ port for a project that kicked off water,” Yusup said. lager, retrieved water from the pud­ last year to help bring safe drink­ URUMQI — More than 20 years region’s south, one of the driest pla­ people won’t add salt to their dish­ In 1995, when he went to college dle until 1994. ing water to Payzawat, with the on, 43­year­old Yusup Keyum can ces in the country, where potable es,” said Jia Zhonghu, a local law­ in another city, the puddle in his “We used gourds to get water pipelines spanning three counties recall the overwhelming smell that water was a rarity. maker. village stopped being the main from the puddle, but now it’s hard to and their length topping 1,800 emanated from the hole in a frozen People in the region relied on sur­ However, this bitter life is now source of water. In the late 1990s, find one in our village,” she said. kilometers. puddle in his village. face water formed by rain, snow or just a memory. The water quality in wells were drilled, water towers After he graduated in 2001, Yusup The completion of the project “It reeked of rotten leaves and river runoff. They would use pieces Payzawat met quality standards in erected and small water treatment worked for ’s rural tap marked the availability of safe tap livestock waste,” he said, adding it of cloth to filter out sand, leaves and early June thanks to a safe drinking­ plants constructed, offering mil­ water general station and witnessed water for all households in Xin­ was the main source of water for his worms. water project, making potable water lions of people access to cleaner the expansion of access to tap water jiang. village when he was a child. The water was not only dirty, but a reality across Xinjiang. water. as more water treatment plants “The tap water we drink now in Yusup now heads rural drinking also often bitter and salty due to the The improvement from bitter and In Buzak village, county, were built. Xinjiang tastes as good as bottled water safety projects in Kashgar in soil. In Payzawat county, Kashgar, salty puddle water to safe tap water stands a monument commemorat­ Drinking water safety in rural are­ water,” Yusup said. “Our life is get­ the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous over half the land is saline­alkali was not easy. ing the water improvement projects as has been high on the government’s ting sweeter too.” region. soil. Before the late 1990s, most people in the county since 1994. agenda as it is an important part of He was born in a village in the “The water is so salty that local in Xinjiang relied on surface water. However, about 100 meters away the country’s anti­poverty campaign. XINHUA