Desolate Roads of the Old Days
2 min readThere was a time when businessmen and passengers flocked on the Silk Road with camel bells echoing in the desert. However, circumstances changed with the passage of time the prosperity has become the drift sand, only desolation left on the ancient road.
“Path is shown up only when thousands of people walk through. “This saying by Luxun cannot be more appropriate in describing Xinjiang before the Liberation. In old China, there was barely any highway or road, let alone the bituminous road; all roads then were made by the passing of people.
The main transportation facilities at that time were camels, carriages and donkeys; when in summer, two-wheel wooden carts or small wagons were available, while sledges pulled by horses or cattle were popular in winter Only 20 to 30 kilometer journeys could be made every day, for people had to eat and rest, while livestock needed to graze and drink. The distance between Hetian of southern Xinjiang and Tacheng of northern Xinjiang or Hami of eastern Xinjiang is about 2,700 km, and people had to travel 100 days to reach the destination. Though for the short straight-line distance between Yining and Akesu, Kuche, it was still quite difficult to go through because of the Bingdaban which is more than 4,000 meters high. At that time, long-distance transport of goods was very dangerous because of the changeable weather of Bingdaban, so merchants usually left their wills and gathered relatives for the farewell ceremony before leaving, once encountered a blizzard unfortunately, no people or goods would survive.
