Changji road is under construction
2 min readIt was much harder to cross those roads than rivers once the heavy rain ruined the roads of Di hua(Urumqi now), Yining and other cities; therefore, roads simply could not be regarded as roads in spring and autumn.
The transportation industry in Xinjiang was quite backward then, there were only 317 cars with the dilapidated traffic mileage of merely 381 km. Xinjiang, with km of the highway per 500 square kilometers, was one of the regions with the lowest highway density both in China and the world. From Lanzhou to Urumqi, and also from Urumqi to Kashgar, nearly a month was needed even if you took the car, people had to bring with them pots and stoves for cooking on the way.
In those fervor combustion years of the new Nation, young people from all over the country rushed to Xinjiang to support the construction of the frontier. The railway to Xinjiang stopped in Wuwei, Gansu province, so people had to get off the train and transfer to cars. The passenger car then was extremely simple by only setting metal frame covered with tarpaulin on the freight car, followed by a trailer. Dozens of people huddled together in the car, and bumped up and down with the car all along the road which was in bad condition, people as well as the car seemed to fall apart, and all people were covered with dust beyond recognition Years after the founding of new China, such status of impassable roads gradually disappeared in Xinjiang. The desolate ancient Silk Road now becomes the specific memories of the hard life for Xinjiang people in those years.
