Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1125: Harsh standards
"The middle line is possible because there are two rest points at Xiaotang and Minfeng crossings between Luntai and Minfeng." Sun Gong said with a smile: "It is a bit fanciful to connect Alar and Hotan along the Hotan River Valley. The distance is It’s too far and there’s no rest stop in between.”

Zhou Zhi took out the atlas and looked at some of the main routes in Northern Xinjiang. He confirmed that he had remembered correctly, but they were roads from later generations and they are still there. When the speed reaches more than 100 kilometers per hour, which is twice the current speed, Hotan and Alar will not be too far away."

"How much does the highway cost?" asked Sun Gong.

"I know that the cost of the Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway is more than 2000 million per kilometer." Zhou Zhi said.

Now it is more than 2000 million per kilometer. In ten years, it will be 5000 million.

"Then I don't dare to think about it." Xu's father smiled and said: "In our northern Xinjiang, if we want to build a highway, we have to build it from Urumqi to Hami first, then connect to Yumen and Jiayuguan, and then build a highway from Hotan to Alar. That is not cost-effective. ”

"One day, the country will build all these roads into expressways."

"Hahaha, that's a blessing." Xu's father smiled and said, "I don't know how long it will take to get there."

Both the naan and the meat are delicious. After eating it, Zhou Zhi discovered a problem, that is, the intake of vitamins and fiber was not enough.

Fortunately, there was a lot of pork belly and celery in the dry mixed lamb tripe, which allowed Zhou Zhi from the mainland to maintain his basic needs.

The sunrise over the Gobi Desert valley is magnificent and the Populus euphratica forest is like a thousand-year-old immortal statue, telling the vicissitudes of history.

Zhou Zhi's camera finally had a chance to be put to use. He clicked a lot of film, and asked Xu's father to take a few photos of himself beside the poplar euphratica forest in the desert, covered with golden light in the morning glow.

I have decided in my heart that in the future, I will take a self-driving trip to Northern Xinjiang with Jiang Shuyi.

Because of the shooting, everyone rested for half an hour longer. Even if they were eating hot food and wearing thick down, even if it was sunny, they were still freezing. They quickly got in the car and continued on their way.

Next it was Zhou Zhi's turn to drive. After two hours of driving, it was already bright, and there was finally some frozen ice on the bed of the Chelchen River beside the road.

Most of the rivers in the desert are seasonal inland rivers. The Chelchen River originates from the snowy peaks of the Altun Mountains, then flows out of the snowy mountains, runs along the valley from Qiemo to Ruoqiang, and finally flows into a village next to Luobuzhuang. Lake, Hetma Lake.

Of course, this only happens after the snowy mountains melt in the summer. The desert itself has strong water absorption and transpiration. Unless the water is at its maximum in the summer, there will be water flow to form lakes. Once autumn is over, the rivers and lakes will disappear together. Only traces of the former riverbed and large areas of saline-alkali land remain.

You have to drive close to QM County to see some intermittent small streams of water flowing stubbornly under the river that has been frozen into ice.

The surrounding area is basically snow-colored, otherwise it is the Gobi Desert, and the only plants are Populus euphratica, tamarisk, camel thorn, splendens, white thorn and other Gobi plants.

However, even in such a desolate place, it is still full of signs of life. On the slopes of the Altyn Mountains on one side of the road, some magical animals can often be seen.

Along the way, Zhou Zhi saw antelopes, yaks, wild horses, blue sheep and other animals, as well as the most fat marmots and hares on the roadside.

In addition to mammals, there are more birds. A large number of cranes and herons live in some reed wetlands, as well as eagles and eagles that are always circling in the sky.Altun Mountain is known as a paradise for plateau wildlife, and it is indeed well-deserved.

While admiring the wonders of the snow-capped mountains and river valleys, and thoughtfully handing over the steering wheel to Gong Sun midway, it was not until two o'clock in the afternoon that the Overlord finally drove into a small county town.

So far, they have been marching non-stop for 22 hours and arrived at Qiemo, a place more than 1000 and [-] kilometers away from Urumqi.

Qiemo is a place rich in water resources.The county has eight rivers including the Cheerchen River that come from the Altun Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains.

The mineral deposits here are extremely rich, and huge copper-zinc ore, magnetite, and oil and natural gas will be discovered one after another in the future.

Equally famous is jade. In more than ten years, when Hotan jade materials are completely exhausted, Hotan will finally rise to succeed Hotan and become the birthplace of the new "Jade Road".

Because a very fine jade species will be found here, which is different from the top-level "sub-material" and the second-level "mountain flow water" material discovered in Yutian in [-]. It is mined directly from the mountains and is called "mountain water". material".

Hotan seed material is produced in the river beds of two rivers and is extremely rare; upstream in Yutian near the origin of the Yulong Kashgar River, more mountain water than hotan seed material is found along the small streams, but it cannot support the huge domestic market demand. , resource depletion occurred quickly.

However, the output of Qiemo mountain material was much greater. What was dug was a "jade vein". The annual output of jade mountain material was as high as one hundred tons, and the jade material was huge in size. It later became the mainstream and supported the market demand for many years. .

The Chinese have been playing with "Hetian White Jade" for thousands of years. In a narrow sense, there are only these types.The Qinghai material discovered later was a little bluish in color, and the luster was much greater than the greasy feeling. The Russian white jade discovered in Russia was a little yellower in color, and the luster was weakened a lot, but it became plasticky again. It has a much greater greasy feel and is never as good as Hetian White Jade.

However, the jade material from Qiemo has not been discovered yet. Currently, a better jade material produced here is called "Qiemo Tang".

Qiemo sugar jade has high oil content and good quality. Although it is not as good as Zi material and Shanliushui material, it is far better than the later Russian material and Qinghai material, and the oil content is even higher than Hotan mountain material.

The disadvantage is that the color is not pure. Because it is a weathered material from mountain materials, it has many cracks and is not easy to produce aniseed. The jade color is white with a slight bluish tint, and most of them have a honey-like reddish sugar-colored cortex, so it is called "Qiemo sugar". ".

In another 30 to [-] years, after the Hotan jade materials were exhausted, the better-colored and powdered sugar materials were often used and sold as jade materials because of the existence of the skin.

Even if you don't pretend to be fake, the best quality sugar has become a hard-to-find good thing because of its quality between mountain materials and mountain water materials.

In particular, the beautiful sugar-colored leather shell and the sugar-colored bits that occasionally bite into the jade flesh are particularly suitable for making colorful carvings. They are very popular among carvers, and many have even won the Tiangong Award and the Hundred Flowers Award. Excellent product.

However, it was such a good jade material. When Zhou Zhi and the others found a restaurant to start eating, several elders from ethnic minorities came over to sell it, and Sun Gong even denounced it as "fake".

In Sun Gong's eyes, all materials that do not come from the two rivers are fakes. This evaluation standard is too harsh.

(End of this chapter)