Grapes in the Turpan Basin
10 min readThere is an ancient poem，”Good wine is poured into a luminous wineglass.When we are about to drink it，some people play pipa on horses as if they are urging us to fight.”The aroma of wine comes from the richness of fruits，while this special fruit can’t be cultivated everywhere.Turpan Basin in Xin jiang，with the highest temperature and the longest sunshine time in China，grows a treasure of fruits which collects essence from the world一grape.
If people want to have an unforgettable memory about grape，there is nothing better than starting a happy journey to the Grape Valley.The summer is intolerable in August，but unlike other inland regions，Turpan Basin is filled with the freshness of grape vine and the strong aroma of grape.This unusual aroma can more or less bring coolness to the hearts of tourists from the city.In the countryside，at the end of village and in the valley，there is all thick grape trellis in luxuriantly green.In the gap of the vine，people can see bunches of drooping fruit.Please be seated，pick several bunches of grape lightly，chew this refreshing sweetness and listen to an elderly farmer tell about the grapes’past-it is really relaxing.
As early as 2 to 3 thousand years ago，the ancient states in Western Asia and Xinjiang District in China started to grow grape.In ancient historical records of China，this District belonged to”the Western Regions”.The Western Regions teem with grape，which is both proved by archaeology and recorded by literature.Since the Tang Dynasty，the name Turpan has been connected with grape，which is in close relation and in complete harmony between geography and fruit.Up until today，when we speak of Turpan，the first response in our head is grape and vice versa.We can’t tell whether it is Turpan that brings up grape or it is grape that brings up Turpan.
Why is the grape of Turpan so sweet? Most people will present such a question after eating grape of Xinjiang. Xin jiang is located in the northwestern inland region in China, far from the sea, so it has temperate continental climate, where it is cold in winter and hot in summer, lacking of rain and with very dry climate, as well as featuring sufficient sunshine with many sunny days in a year. Even though it is dry and lacking rain, as a result of sufficient sunshine melting the ice and snow on high mountains, it brings precious water for crops. The temperature in the daytime is high so that it can enhance photosynthesis of crops and is favorable for the accumulation of nutrition; the temperature is low at night, so the respiration of crops weakens to reduce consumption of nutrition. Therefore, the fruits and vegetables in Xinjiang grow particularly large and particularly sweet as well.
The plantation method of grape in Xin jiang is also different from that of other places.
When late autumn comes, the leaves of grape will fall off. In order that it can pass the winter safely, the grape vine needs to be buried with soil temporarily before winter comes.
When spring comes and it becomes warm, dig up the soil and prop the grape vine onto the grape trelis. After about 2 to 3 weeks, the grape will grow new sapling once again. In early summer, the leaves of grape grow dense, which looks like jade screens and is very spectacular. The leaves are in thick layers and swing in the sun, making people associate them with the aromatic and sweet grape in midsummer. But the grape is still small and not ripe while the leaves are particularly thick, then it is time for pruning. In pruning, cut those branches and leaves blocking sun radiation to make grape absorb more sunshine and grow more fruits. Up to about the Mid-Autumn Day, the grape becomes ripe.
Xin jiang produces the best grape in the world, especially that grape of Turpan which is the most renowned, is known at home and abroad. Usually the grape starts to become ripe at the end of April. Up until August, there is plenty of it, which is sold in every corner of the street. If you are in the Grape Valley, you can enjoy songs and dances while eating grape, which is the perfect enjoyment! When it is grape harvesting season, you can see the garden full of heavy grape hanging down to press the vine. Some kinds are like pearly transparency, some like agate’s brightness and some are like jade green in color. The colorful and fresh grape makes people’s mouths water. Especially the most popular seedless white grape, featuring thin skin, tender flesh, plentiful juice, tasty flavor and rich nutrition, has always been called”pearl”, whose sugar content is up to 20%-24%, surpassing the grape grown inCalifornia, the USA as the number one in the world. The plantation of grape in Xinjiang boasts for a long history and diversified varieties, including Thomson seedless, Manaizi grape, Baijiagan, Munage, Black grape, Hotan Red, Kashihare and Pink Toffee grapes, altogether over 600 varieties.
Many people believe grape is delicious because of its sweetness, plentiful juice, tenderness and mellowness. But I think this kind of knowledge is too perceptual, which fails to tell the value of grape. As a matter of fact, grape can be a “high gold content”fruit in terms of traditional Chinese medicine. It is believed in Chinese medicine that grape is neutral in nature and tastes sweet and sour, functioning nourishment of vital energy andblood, enhancement of muscles and bones, benefit of liver yin and urination, relaxation of muscles and stimulation of blood circulation, warming stomach and tonifying spleen and removal of anxiety and thirst. It is proved by modern medicine that the polyphenol substances contained in grape are natural scavenging against free-radicals, featuring strong antioxidant activity, which can effectively adjust the functions of hepatic cell to resist or reduce the harm done by free-radical to them. In addition, it features anti-inflammatory action; it can combine with the protein in bacteria and virus to make them lose the ability to cause diseases. It is proved by the research abroad that fresh grape, grape leaves and raisin all feature the ability to resist virus. Grape has high iron content, so for those patients of hypoferric anemia, eating raisin is greatly helpful as a supporting measure of treatment. Grape contains rich glucose and multiple vitamins, which have obvious efficacy in protecting liver and easing ascites and edema of lower limbs. It can also improve plasma albumin and reduce transaminase. The glucose, organic acid, amino acid and vitamins contained in grape can excite the cranial nerve, improving neurasthenia and fatigue associating with hepatitis. The tartaric acid in grape can also help digestion, increase appetite and prevent the occurrence of hepatitis and fatty liver.
Grape can be used to make wine. The wine made with it is seductive, just like those veiled women singing merrily and dance gracefully. The Persians called grape “tree of lifedrink”and “holy tree from the moon”. In the palace of Persia, the wine administrator was an important and decent position, en joying the treatment of a minister. According to Herodotus, the Persians discussed significant issues under intoxication, believing thatdecisions made under intoxication are more reliable than that made with a sober mind.
Wine played an important part in flourishing the poetry, music and dancing in Persia. In the poems of Rudaki, Omar Khayyam and others, wine and beautiful women were the most frequent images. In the reflection of a wineglass, the blush on a lover’s face was a fairyland.
There have already been such famous brands as Suntime, Western Region and Loulan.
However, among the wines of Xinjiang,I am interested most in a folk wine-Musalles.
Musalles is the oldest wine in the Western Regions. The “good wine”in a poem of the Tang Dynasty,”Good wine is poured into luminous wineglass. When we are about to drink it, some people play pipa on horses as if they are urging us to fight”, refers to Musalles. The”delicious wine”presented by the Gaochang Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty is also Musalles But Musalles is different from wine. To be exact, it is a natural alcoholic drink between wine and grape juice. The renowned “Cool World”of Fire Land-the Grape Valley, is locatedin the 13 kilometers long Flaming Mountain Valley in the northeast of Turpan. The Grape Valley is a truncated valley being not very deep,8 kilometers long from north to south, about 0.5 kilometers wide from east to west and up to 2 kilometers at the widest location.A small brook flows through it. Sometimes gurgling spring water comes out of the rock crevice on the side of the Valley. In the Valley, there grows luxuriant grape vine where there are thick grape trellis, with flowers and fruit trees interspersed and orderly-arranged farmhouses. On the high slope, there are “drying barn”dedicated to drying raisin built withmany hollow cob bricks. There is grape land of 400 hectares in the Grape Valley at presentwith yearly fresh grape output of 6 million kilograms and raisin output of over 3 million kilograms. The Thomson seedless raisin produced here is bright and green and tasty, winning great fame in the international market, which is called “green pearl of China”
There is a “Western Wine City”in the Grape Valley, actually a small size of a grape museum.
It presents the whole process of making Musalles: wash and clean the fresh ripe grape, squeeze it into juice, and add water two times of grape juice into a cauldron, first use big fire and then slow fire to braise it until braising it to the volume of its original quantity, load it into a big vat or jar, cap it for sealing, place it in a place with sun exposure for basking and leave it fermenting. In about 40 days, it is made. When fermenting in a vat, some makes sound similar to boiling water “rumble”and some makes “bang-bang”explosive sound.A qualified winemaker can tell the condition and quality of Musalles bylistening to the sound. Different from the wine made through the modern process, Musallesis somewhat darker and more turbid, so it looks chaotic or like some sandstorm making it turbid. This most ancient and primitive wine, no doubt, own such characteristics as simplicity, naturalness and mellowness. Drinking it will make people feel they have returned to nature and countryside. The Uygur People want to add some other substances when making Musalles. The most popular is to add pigeon blood as well as such medicinal materials such as medlar, safflower and cistanche. The people in Hotan tend to add rose flower into Musalles to make it more fragrant. The people in Awat County put a whole roast lamb into it, and when they fish up the sheep bone after the mutton is totally melted in the wine, Musalles is made. Musalles made like this is rich in nutrition, and is also the most turbid. Some people simply call it “mutton wine”. The fruit winery established between the Turpan Valley and Turpan City has introduced nationally-leading wine making, storage and filling production line, and flexible package production lines of grape, honey melon, mulberry can and concentrated juice, as well as a large-scale refrigeration house capable of accommodating several thousand tons of melons and fruits. The Turpan full-juice wine made here sell well all through China. Deep in the Grape Valley, there is a grape amusement park, covering an area of several thousand square meters, which was built dedicatedly for the tourists at home and abroad. Here it includes dense shade, green plant, gurgling spring, zigzag roads, sweet grape, and intoxicating singing and dancing: all make people feel relaxed and happy.
Turpan is also an important production base of raisin in China.It is locatedin an intermountain basin in the east of Mt.Tianshan in Xin jiang，where the cultivated area of grape is about 333 square kilometers，with yearly grape output 0.5 million tons and over 100 kinds of grape arieties.The raisin production in Turpan accounts for over 40 percent in China.According to different varieties of grape，the raisin in Xin jiang can be divided into Thomson seedless, super green, green Xiangfei seedless raisin, rose Xiangfei seedless raisin, red Xiangfei seedless raisin, ace of aces, Manaizi grape, Nanrenxiang raisin, muscat hamburg, golden empress, sweet princess red, blackcurrant, desert king, chocolate, yogurt, saxaul, kashhare and rikagen grape and so on. Raisin air-cured with seedless white fresh grape contains sugar up to 60%, which is regarded as the treasure of grape. There are mainly three kinds of processing methods for raisin. The first is to be exposed to the sun directly to make it into brown raisin; the second is to be air-cured in curing room. In Xinjiang, only Turpan Basin and Hotan district can make it in this way. There is arid climate and high temperature in autumn and often blow dry and hot wind. Curing room is built on the rood and slope, which is 3 meters high,4 meters wide and 6-8 meters long and built by adobe with ventilation all round the walls. There are rows of timber frame to hang ripe grape on it; with the blowing of dry and hot wind, it turns dark green, pearl-like, soft, sweet and nutritious raisin after around 30 to 45 days. The famous seedless green raisin of Xinjiang is made with this method, with the sug ar content up to 69.71% and acid content 1.4%-2.1%. The third is rapid drying method. At first, grape is treated with dehydrating agent and then air-cured in curing room or dried with dryer to reduce drying time to a great extent. Raisin enjoys a long history in Xinjiang. It is recorded in Taiping Guang Ji that during the Datong Reign(535A.D. to.D.) of the Southern Dynasty Liang, Gaochang Kingdom(located in the current Turpan County) sent emissaries to Emperor Wu of Liang to present raisin as tribute. The raisin made in Turpan is also exported to Japan and Southeast Asia as well as other places besides all provinces in China.
As the featured fruit of Xin jiang and signature product of Turpan, Grape is “touted”by the people all over the world. No matter it is eaten directly, made into raisin, wine or for medicine, it has very high value, which deserves the name of “gold bunches”of Turpan.
