Written by: Fu Xiaobo Xinhua
Posted on: August 02, 2018 | 
| 中文
Temperature gauge
Turpan of Xinjiang, known as “the Land of Fire,” is one of the famous high-temperature regions in China. In recent years, it makes full use of its light and heat to develop emerging industries, such as "heat pole" tourism, sand therapy, health care, high-temperature castors, and hot and dry natural environment testing ground. With initiatives like these, it has turned heat into a "hot engine" to drive the local economic development and industrial transformation.
A self-mockery of Turpan people goes like this: “Turpan Basin is a place where people ‘go out (of the door) for five minutes and sweat later for two hours,’ which is no exaggeration at all! Located in the lowest inland basin of China and surrounded by mountains, Turpan heats up rapidly, but cools down slowly. According to the records of the meteorological department, the local average temperature from June to August is above 38 ?, the number of days above 40 ? is 35 to 40 days, and the ground temperature at noontime in summer can rise to over 75 ?.
The landscape is still continuously heating up. In fact, the ground temperature is much higher than the indicated air temperature. The landmark thermometer at the Flaming Mountains Scenic Spot in Turpan monitored that since the summer, the surface temperature at noon has exceeded 70?, reaching a maximum of 88 ?.
For a long time, Turpan's unique light and heat conditions have given "sweetness" to the local signboard agricultural product—grapes. Long sunshine duration, high temperature and large temperature difference between day and night help grapes to accumulate sugar.
In the local conventional thinking, the advantages brought by climate are nothing more than that. Yet with scientific development and economic restructure, the local, low value-added primary agricultural products gradually lose their advantages, and Turpan urgently needs to find new growth points to boost its local economy.
As people's individual needs and consumption grow, the number of tourists attracted by Turpan's "hotness" has increased significantly in recent years. During the peak season of tourism, more than 3000 tourists visit the Flaming Mountains every day to feel the heat waves. The visitors coming to experience eggs baking in desert, sand therapy and other tourist items are endless.
The local government regards "hotness" as a unique resource and makes good use of it in their promotion of the development of tourism, health care and other related industries in order to stimulate new consumption demand.
In 2016, Turpan invested in building a 6200-square-meter sand therapy experience center in its suburban Shanghu Village, Yar Town, which integrates the functions of tourism, treatment, accommodation, catering and sightseeing. The journalists saw at the center that colorful umbrellas bloomed on the sand dunes, and under the umbrellas, people buried their bodies in the sand in groups, chatting and drinking tea, saying they were "enjoying the heat" to their heart’s content.
As sand therapy has been heating up, the appearance of Shanghu Village has gradually changed. On both sides of the trunk road to the sand therapy center, folk houses and hostels with unified style and ethnic features are being built. Sixty-eight farmer households have built new houses and developed rural tourism. Akbar Niyaz, a villager who transformed his own courtyard into a family hotel, has made a net income of 50,000 yuan from it this year. "It brings much more income than farming." Akbar said. Tourists can enjoy not only sand therapy, but also grape picking and visit to the Karezwells. "Now more and more visitors come, and they stay longer,” he added.
Just like sand therapy tourism, the hot and dry natural environment testing has become another domain for economic growth in Turpan in recent years.
About 20 kilometers away from the downtown of Turpan, lies a boundless and barren Gobi-desert. "All products that require high temperature tests in China are taken here to be exposed in the sun." In the rolling heat waves, Long Yanping, vice consultant with Turpan Municipal Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau, pointed to the more than 2000mu (about 133 ha.) desert and said, "Do not underestimate this land. In the past two years, it has been approved as China’s reference point for tests in hot and dry natural environment and an important base for hot zone test run." The vast Gobi-desert is divided into pieces of small parks. Tens of thousands of various product parts are lined up, such as glass, rubber, pipes, lamps, car seats, steering wheels, etc. These products are placed in the open air, silently taking "the test of being roasted" by the sun.
Different products have different requirements for resistance against high temperature, corrosion and drought. Therefore, the time of exposure also varies from one year to 50 years. The manufacturers regularly come to collect data, appraise product quality or upgrade products according to the results of exposure.
To this end, Turpan has successively built a supporting experimental field and inspection center, which enable the enterprises to measure and produce inspection results on the spot, thus reducing experiment cost for manufacturers.
It is long said that when China did not have such conditions in the past, many car companies went to Europe and America to test their cars. Turpan's "national reference point for test in hot and dry natural environment" and "base for hot zone test run" have filled the gap for China. In the summer of 2016 alone, 138 enterprises and more than 2000 people conducted test-run experiments for over 1400 cars in Turpan, which boosted the development of local hotels, catering, transportation, maintenance and other related industries, directly increasing consumption by nearly 80 million yuan in Turpan.
In the past, the local government tried to avoid talking about the "heat" of Turpan in attracting investment, worrying that the extreme weather conditions would scare off investors, however, now the high temperature has become a resource that the local place tries to promote, as it provides constant inspiration for promoting the local economy.
Translated by Xu Donglin
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