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The Tarim River is 2,179 kilometers long
and has a drainage area of 198,000 square kilometers. It is the
longest inland river in China and the fifth longest in the world,
after the Volga, Syr Darya, Amu, and Ural.
The Tarim River is mainly fed by six tributaries:
the Konqi, Weigan, Kaxgar, Yarkant, Hotan, and Aksu Rivers. Today,
the Tarim is mainly replenished by the Aksu and Hotan, and in the
flood period, by the Yarkant. The main stream of the Tarim is 1,321
kilometers long, divided into the upper reaches of 495 kilometers,
the middle reaches of 398 kilometers, and the lower reaches of 428
kilometers. The main stream retains a volume of about 4.5 billion
cubic meters.
The Tarim River Valley was one of the early centers
of the civilization of West China and, according to an American
scholar, of the culture of the whole world. With fertile soil, abundant
resources, and a mild climate, the river valley has a long history
of agricultural development and is known as the Home of Fruit, the
Home of Cotton, and the Home of Song and Dance.
The Tarim River Valley became famous throughout
the world in the days when the ancient Silk Road ran through it.
The river itself plays an important role in the economic and social
development of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and has long
been known as the Mother River, the River of Life, and the River
of the Hometown.
Over the past 50 years, irrational development
on the banks of the river, especially the wanton diversion on the
upper and middle reaches, have damaged the surrounding ecological
environment. The lower reaches of the river have dried up along
with Taitema Lake, the termination of the river, causing deterioration
of the vegetation, serious desertification, and the disappearance
of many plant and animal species.
Saving the Tarim has become an increasingly
urgent need, and the state and regional governments have given great
attention to the comprehensive control of the surrounding ecological
system. In April 2000, the Ministry of Water Resources and the regional
government of Xinjiang established a project to improve the ecological
environment on the lower reaches of the Tarim. Since then, 20 million
yuan have been used to pump 700 million cubic meters of water into
the dried section of the Tarim in three stages.
On November 6, 2001, a section that had
been dry for 30 years began to flow again. The groundwater level
on the lower reaches of the river went up, forests of diversiform-leaved
poplar became exuberant, and birds and animals that had not been
seen there for years came to live there again.
In 2001, the state government decided to
invest 10.7 billion yuan to control the whole Tarim River in five
years. The works include dredging the main stream, building bank
revetments, controlling the river water, constructing reservoirs
in the mountains, developing water-saving agriculture, returning
farmland to forests and grassland, and readjusting the economic
structure of the Tarim River Valley. At the completion of the project,
the natural vegetation on 13,000 square kilometers of land in the
Tarim River Valley will be improved, the ecological system on the
lower reaches will be recovered, and Taitema Lake will be replenished
with 350 million cubic meters of water a year.
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A forest of
diversiform-leaved poplars.
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Dead from
thirst. Many diversiform-leaved poplars died from lack of
water.
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A village
on the lower reaches of the Tarim today.
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A little girl
enjoys the newly flowing river in a dugout canoe. The canoe
was made by the girl's grandfather several decades ago but
fell into disuse after the river dried up.
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The dried-up
Lop Nur, an inland plains lake. It is in the shape of an ear.
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A swan on
the lower reaches of the Tarim. Since 2000, the water of Bosten
Lake has been pumped into the lower reaches of the Tarim three
times, and the vegetation on both banks has improved greatly.
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