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Chic . Explore . ThinkerTen

My Style ~ My Journey ~ My Inspiration

ChinaTravelXinjiang

Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan – 2000 Years Old Water System

by kumamonjeng July 30, 2018
written by kumamonjeng July 30, 2018
Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan – 2000 Years Old Water System

Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan -2000 Years Old Water System

Karez mean Well in Uyghur Language

Karez Well in Turpan is one of the famous construction projects in ancient China. The reason of building Karez Well in Turpan was because of the local natural geographical conditions. The word Karez means “well” in the local Uyghur language.

Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan -2000 Years Old Water System

Why Built Karez Well in Turpan?

The temperature in Turpan can go as high as 80’C, annual rainfall is less than 16 mm. So the ancient people in Turpan built Karez to find water resources.  When you enter the underground, you see the water is gushing out and the temperature is quite cool – like in air conditional room.

Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan -2000 Years Old Water System

Karez Man Made Well

The Karez was man-made well, consisting of the vertical well, hidden channel, open channel and flood dam. Currently there are more than 1,000 Karez in Turpan with a total length of 5,000 km, accounting to 30% of the total water supply in Turpan.

Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan -2000 Years Old Water System

Underground Great Wall

Ancient people risk their lives to dig and design a water system without using any sophisticated tool – they use bare feet and simple tools to dig underground tunnel. Turpan Karez, the Great Wall and the Grand Canal were 3 great works of ancient China. Spreading all over the Turpan Basin, the crisscrossing Karez look like an underground Great Wall, transport snow water from Tianshan into the Turpan oasis, nourishing orchards, farm and people living in this area.

Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan -2000 Years Old Water System

Uyghur Ice Cream

You may like to try the Uyghur yogurt ice-cream while in Xinjiang, cost about RMB 5.00 ( less than USD 1).

Silk Road China Xinjiang : Karez Well at Turpan -2000 Years Old Water System

Final Thoughts :

It is really ingenious for the ancient people to invent the irrigation system back 2000 years ago and turning parts of this hot desert in Turpan into lush greenery. Karez system bring life to Turpan. The museum is small but to see the irrigation system with your own eyes is pretty amazing. It is an educational tour for me.

You may like :

  • Turpan Flaming Mountain – Journey to the West 西游记火焰山
  • Turpan Emin Minarets
  • Silk Road China : My Bullet Train Experience to Turpan Xinjiang

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China silk roadkarez wellsTurpan irrigation systemunderground great wallUyghur wellwater system
previous post
Silk Road China Xinjiang : Emin Minaret at Turpan – Uyghur Islamic Architecture
next post
Silk Road China : World Largest Ruins in Xinjiang ! Lost Kingdom of Yar – Jiaohe / 交河故城

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33 comments

kidneyfornikki July 30, 2018 - 2:52 am

That information about the irrigation system is very interesting. That was quite impressive for the time, right? Thanks for sharing!

Reply
kumamonjeng July 30, 2018 - 6:31 am

Dear Nikki,
Karez Well is reputed as one of the three major construction projects in ancient China, together with the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. I totally agree this is very impressive project back in 2000 years ago.

Reply
Enas July 30, 2018 - 8:36 am

Wow, very intresting. It kept me reading until the end. Learned something new.

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 5:43 am

Dear Enas,

I am glad the Turpan 2000 years old irrigation system did not bored you and you manage to finish till the end of this post. Thank you so much for your kind words.

Reply
Preet July 30, 2018 - 8:58 am

Wow, such a detailed post that would be so helpful to plan a great trip to China. Loving the pictures so much.

Reply
delhifundos2014 July 30, 2018 - 9:17 am

Your work inspired me to start blogging as well. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 5:42 am

Dear Delhi,

I am glad that you wanted to start blogging as well. My blogging lifestyle has helped me to document many of the interesting events of places that I have been to. It also helped me to grow and learn to be more observant when I visit a new place, look at the details and ask why. See from other perspective and be bold and try new thing.
I also hope my experience can help other people in whatever way it is. 🙂

Reply
Corina July 30, 2018 - 12:29 pm

This looks cool! Ancient stuff is always so breathtaking!

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 5:36 am

Dear Corina,
Thanks for your comment. Ancient people are brilliant in many ways! The thing they built many thousand years ago without any fancy tools are just jaw dropping when you look at this. And Karez Irrigation system is just one of them, also known as the underground Great Wall!

Reply
aisasami July 30, 2018 - 12:58 pm

Wow, great photos and a great write up. I want to visit China (but the visa is a lot of money,even though I am like 2 hours away). I am always fascinated with the minorities and their cultures in China (and around the world). I want to check out this part of China!

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 5:34 am

Dear Asaisami,

I totally agree with you that the China visa is a bit of the pain, the cost is quite expensive. Luckily for Singaporean we can travel to China without visa. It did help us save a lot of money. My mom who is holding an Australian passport paid over USD100 for the China visa, that was such a pain!

Reply
Daisy July 30, 2018 - 2:09 pm

Wow what a beautiful and intriguing place to visit! I would love to visit someplace like this with such history….

Reply
Razena | Tantalisemytastebuds.com July 30, 2018 - 5:45 pm

i’ve been watching a cooking show recently that shows how Chinese cooking has influenced other world cuisines through the trade along the silk road and I’m not surprised that these ancient people were such ingenious inventors.

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 5:32 am

Dear Razena,
These day the cooking show and master chef show is really popular. Chinese cooking did have strong influence from the ancient silk road trade route. Many of the western element get introduced at the crossroad of Silk Road China!

Reply
nmgilb July 30, 2018 - 7:29 pm

This is so interesting! My husband and I are planning a trip to Asia this spring and have been looking into this and so many other archaeologically important sites.

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 5:30 am

Dear Gibert,
Hope you have a wonderful visit in Asia!

Reply
Jennie Carfora July 30, 2018 - 8:26 pm

Thank you for sharing your trip. I absolutely love going to museums and ancient artifacts. <3

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 5:29 am

Dear Jennie,
It is really bizarre to see this underground water system was done 2000 years ago.

Reply
Tara July 31, 2018 - 3:09 am

This is very neat how without modern technology the people back then created this incredible water system. It is always amazing to read of such talent.

Reply
Jenn July 31, 2018 - 7:34 am

This is interesting, ancient stuffs always fascinates me. Is it cool that until today some of it are well preserved and open for the public for them to learn things that happened in the past.

Reply
kumamonjeng July 31, 2018 - 8:46 am

Dear Jenn,
Thanks for your comment. The Karez well was invented and built by ancient farmers from the various ethnic minorities of Turpan. It was an educational tour for me to learn about the water system back in 2000 years ago.

Reply
Elizabeth O July 31, 2018 - 2:17 pm

Oh wow it looks like there is so much history and culture to explore here. It was so interesting to learn about the 2000 year old water system too!

Reply
Pradnya July 31, 2018 - 2:34 pm

Wow! Never heard of this place. Will be researching more about this place.

Reply
kumamonjeng August 1, 2018 - 6:45 am

Dear Pradnya,

Jiaohe Ruins is located in the crossroad of Silk Road China. Not far from Turpan city in Xinjiang China. Anyone who is visiting Xinjiang should not miss this place!

Reply
Lisa Rios July 31, 2018 - 5:16 pm

Wow this is incredible! I’ve never heard of this place, but it sounds wonderful. It always astounds me how resourceful all the ancient people were.

Reply
kumamonjeng August 1, 2018 - 6:36 am

Dear Lisa,

The buildings here were all contructed by earth. Ancient People dug houses and rooms downward from the earth and built with dried bricks. Agree with you that ancient people are so smart!

Reply
AlwaysCarryOn.com August 1, 2018 - 8:57 pm

Wow, what an interesting place to visit! I’ve not been to this part of the world before, but it’s definitely on my bucket list 🙂 I love all the historic buildings and the story behind it all x

Reply
Becca Wilson August 1, 2018 - 11:22 pm

This looks like it would be such a beautiful place to visit. Definitely on my bucket list!

Reply
angie August 2, 2018 - 3:18 am

very interesting, attention keeping, informative post thanks for sharing I enjoyed reading

Reply
onceuponadollhouse August 2, 2018 - 11:39 am

It would be a dream to go here! What was your favorite part?

Reply
kumamonjeng August 2, 2018 - 1:09 pm

Dear Dollhouse,
My favorite part is learning about the history of the irrigation system. It was just jaw dropping to learn they dig out the Karez water system with their own hand and not sophisticated tools.

Reply
Edward August 4, 2018 - 12:17 am

A very interesting travel blog. Caverns and caves are the next on my list. I realy impress with travelers exploring caves

Reply
Marc & Paula August 4, 2018 - 1:12 am

Ok now I am jealous, what a remarkable experience !! thank you for sharing.

Reply

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I am the travel writer for Thinkerten. I lived in Japan, Australia, Malaysia and now based in Singapore. Speak 4 languages, Japanese, English, Malay, and Chinese. There are the many types of travels one can experience and mine are mostly focus on self-driving/road trip to explore the places I wanted to see and learn about. Only if you get out of your country, you will see the real you and understand more about yourself, to realize of your own identity, your own culture, and your root.

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