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NO.2125 - Xinjiang Corps Aral
Author: 杔格
Draft: Koo Han-chi / Editor: Yakult
The 359th Brigade Tunken Memorial Hall, located in the First Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and in Aral City, is engraved with the following poem: "Born in Jinggangshan, grew up in Nanniwan, fought for tens of thousands of miles, and reclaimed in Tianshan."
A chic memorial, one of Aral's landmarks
(Photo: Figureworm Creative)▼
This is exactly the glorious poem written by General Wang Zhen, one of the founders of the 359th Brigade, when he inspected the Tarim Reclamation District at the end of March 1960 when he was the minister of agricultural reclamation, condensing and summarizing the glorious inheritance history of the First Division. This poem, which has been sung in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains for more than 60 years, is also the original poem of the "March of the Corps", which can be described as a household name in Xinjiang.
The poem is also engraved south of the memorial
On the monument to the Reclamation of the 359th Brigade
On January 10, 2022, the Aksu-Aral Railway (abbreviated as the A-A-A-Railway) was officially opened for operation, ending the history of this heroic city without trains.
The crowd in front was too enthusiastic to squeeze into the front row!
(Swipe left to view multiple figures, picture: 杔格)▼
A-A railway location - slide left to see the long map▼
At 20:20 on the same day, with the first passenger train K9784 slowly leaving Aral Station and heading for Urumqi Station, it marked that people in the area of the First Division of the Corps could finally take the train in front of their homes and go to the capital and areas along the railway.
January 10 is also the first day of the first quarter of this year
"Three Long Marches"
The city of Aral, the first division, was a young city, but it was the only glorious division to experience the "Three Long Marches" ("The Long March of the Red Army, returning south to the north, and marching into Xinjiang").
Its predecessor was the First Independent Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in Xiangdong during the Jinggangshan Revolution and the Sixth Army, and its first Long March was in 1934, when the Central Committee ordered the Red Sixth Army to set off 2 months in advance as the advance team of the Long March, along the way to seize the pass, chase the north, and reach northern Shaanxi after 25,000 miles.
The Advance Team of the Long March of the Central Red Army set out from Yongxin, Jiangxi
In August 1937, the unit was reorganized into the 359th Brigade. In November 1944, a part of the main force of the 359th Brigade, under the leadership of General Wang Zhen, formed a detachment to go south, bid farewell to Yan'an, went south to Guangdong to establish a base area, and returned to Yan'an in September 1946, which lasted 1 year, 9 months and 29 days, traveled 27,000 miles, fought more than 300 times, and successfully completed the task of the southern conquest and northern war entrusted by the central government, which was called the "Second Long March" by Chairman Mao.
During his time in Yan'an, the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians represented by the 359th Brigade
Created the famous "Nanniwan Spirit" (Photo: Tu Worm Creative)▼
In October 1949, the inheritor of the 359th Brigade,Chinese the 5th Division of the Second Army of the First Corps of the First Field Army of the People's Liberation Army, went west out of Yangguan, marched into Xinjiang, and liberated the Great Northwest, going through more than 30 large and small battles, sacrificing 5272 soldiers, and completing the "Third Long March".
After General Wang Zhen led his troops to liberate Qinghai, he crossed the Qilian Mountains
Straight into Zhangye, liberate Jiuquan, and push straight into Xinjiang
Finally, it led to the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang (Photo: Tu Worm Creative)▼
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the development of the situation, in June 1953, the Fifth Infantry Division was reorganized in Aksu into the First Agricultural Construction Division of the Xinjiang Military Region. In 1954, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps was established, and in October of the same year, the First Agricultural Division was assigned to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. In September 1957, it was stationed in Araltun Reclamation, and since then, the history of the First Division has been changed and adjusted many times.
"There is Shihezi in the north and Aral in the south"
The cognition of the corps outside the mouth often only knows Shi Hezi
In fact, Aral also has famous things, such as Tarim University
At that time, Aral's natural environment was harsh, production materials were scarce, and living conditions were difficult, and generations of the 359th Brigade carried forward the spirit of Nanniwan, took root in the frontier, fought in the sky and the earth, reclaimed the border, built homes, created the human miracle of "people entering the sand and retreating", "artificial oasis", and built a beautiful military reclamation city on the edge of the desert.
Even today, the environment along the route is still harsh
(Photo: 杔格)▼
In September 2002, the State Council approved the establishment of Aral City, a county-level city directly under the jurisdiction of the autonomous region. On January 19, 2004, the Municipal People's Government was established. At this time, the division and city were not unified, until April 2012, the focus of the division organs shifted from Aksu City to Aral City, gradually completing the "division-city integration" and starting systematic urban development and construction.
Built-up area of Aral City (Photo: Changguang Satellite)▼
Pearl of the Tower River
Aral City, which has a warm temperate extreme continental arid desert climate, is located in the southern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, in the northern part of the Tarim Basin, and is the upper reaches of the Tarim River at the confluence of the Aksu River, the Yarkand River and the Hotan River. It belongs to the Tarim River alluvial fine soil plain, along the river bank and on both sides of the gully slightly uplifted, the terrain from northwest to southeast slope, water resources include Aksu River, Tarim River and Shengli, upstream, multi-wave three major plain reservoirs.
The city at the confluence of the three rivers (Photo: Changguang Satellite)▼
It is worth noting that although Aral Is a city where three rivers meet, it will inevitably become a traffic artery and hub, but it is relatively remote compared to the cities along the traditional Transportation Network of the Southern Xinjiang Basin, and it is not along the Southern Xinjiang Railway.
Aral is compared to Aksu, Hotan, Kashgar and other places
Deeper into the desert hinterland -▼
Although Aral currently has a number of roads leading to the surrounding Wensu Yurgon, Aksu, Tumxuk, Hotan, Shaya and other areas, and the desert road to Tazhong is also under construction, only a longitudinal G217 national highway in Kuqa-Shaya-Aral-Awati-Tumshuk and a G580 national highway of the nature of a liaison line between Aksu-Aral-Hotan-Consivia, the others are provincial roads.
National Highway G580 connects Aksu and Consilva
This means that in the future, it is possible to go directly south into Tibet from Aral
(Photo: Amap)▼
As for the railway, Aral has not been available for a long time, and the nearest major train station is Aksu Station. People need to take a 2 to 3 hours car to Aksu to catch a train, carpool costs 30 yuan, bus or minibus cost 27 yuan, the journey is very tiring, and sometimes in the psychology will feel that the time is not cost-effective.
Hop on and off at Aksu Station for travelers
In 2017, the outline of the corps' southward development plan was introduced, which clearly put forward the strategy of "building the central city of the southern Xinjiang Corps of Aral City" and planned to promote the development of Aral from the national level. At present, Aral is building many industries such as fine petrochemicals, textiles and garments, and green food processing.
On the day of the opening of the Ahrach-A railway, we visited the city of Aral
Agricultural machinery manufacturing, carbon, textile and other local enterprises
In the face of the relevant planning strategy and the current situation of industrial and agricultural development in Aral, the opening of a railway is of great significance to promote local economic development.
The local people look forward to this railway
The A-A-A Railway
The Aksu-Aral Railway is located in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, passing through Aksu City, Awati County and Aral City in the Aksu Region, with a total of three county-level administrative units.
Passing through two cities and one county
The A-A-A Railway leads from the southern end of the west side of the Satma Station (located in Aksu City) of the Southern Xinjiang Railway, passing through Awati County, the Aral Station near the 7th Regiment of the 1st Division, the 8th Regiment to the 9th Regiment (Aral City), and there are 4 railway stations along the way, namely Satma (Connecting Station), Awati, Tamen (Concession Station) and Aral, and 3 concession stations are reserved.
Near satma, the junction of the Southern Xinjiang Railway and the Afghanistan-Afghanistan Railway
With a total length of 114.6 kilometers, the line is a single-line regional railway of the National Railways Class II passenger and freight common line, with a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour and reserved electrification conditions, and the construction began on April 29, 2020.
Following the opening of the Tumshuk Railway last year
Another corps special line railway has opened! ▼
The A-A Line is a railway that crosses the Gobi oasis, with a total of 58 extra-large and large bridges on the line.
- For example, the Aksu River Special Bridge
(Photo: Xinjiang Railway Survey and Design Institute)▼
Most of the sections along the line are farmland areas, accounting for 90% of the total length of the line, and the coarse particle filler is relatively lacking, so the scheme of core subgrade is adopted in the section of the wind and sand area, the bottom of the base bed of the Aksu River to Aral section, which greatly saves the project investment.
Surveyors surveyed in farmland areas
At the same time, the farmland section of water conservancy irrigation facilities at all levels crisscrossed, rural roads in all directions, drip irrigation pipelines densely packed, in view of the characteristics of the drainage and irrigation system, the design scheme in the line along the large irrigation canal, road reasonable wiring, as far as possible to reduce the whole line bridge culvert settings, effectively reduce the height of the line, reduce the scale of land acquisition and earthworks.
The laying of the last set of rails on the Afghanistan-Afghanistan Railway is complete
(Photo: Xinjiang Railway)▼
On the other hand, the Afghanistan-Afghanistan Railway has always implemented the concept of green coordinated development in its program research, bypassing environmentally sensitive points such as the Aksu Dolang Nature Reserve and the water source of the Dolang Reservoir.
Schematic diagram of the Afghan-Afghan railway, abandoning the plan of passing through the five regiments
In the end, the Satma integration scheme was chosen
(Photo: Xinjiang Railway Survey and Design Institute)▼
In addition, the line partially passes through the aeolian sand area on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, and for different types and hazards of aeolian sand, a protective system combining engineering sand control and plant sand control is set up, which not only ensures the safety of railway transportation, but also improves the environmental conditions along the line.
The Afghanistan-Afghanistan Railway is also the first railway jointly built by soldiers and railways in Xinjiang, and it is also a railway whose completion and acceptance date is four months ahead of the estimated time. Under the premise of such a tight construction period, the Construction Process of the Argentine Railway refers to the ballasted railway track laying process with a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour, adopts multiple large-scale mechanical operations and fine measurements, adjusts the geometric size of the track, and makes the track quality index TQI reach 4.07, which belongs to a very high standard number and ensures the comfort of passengers.
The fine-tuned operation of the Afghan-Afghan Railway
The terminal station, Aral Station, is another highlight of the Ahral Railway. After many comparisons and demonstrations, in the design of the station building, the scheme of making full use of the central station building of the Aral Highway Passenger Transport (Tourist Distribution) center located in the development zone was adopted to set up a railway passenger station.
There are few cases of bus stations being changed to train stations
The renovation of the existing station building has been completed, becoming the hub of public railway intermodal transportation in Aral City. It is worth mentioning that this is also the first project in Xinjiang to use the existing road passenger terminal building to set up a railway passenger station.
The remodeled station house has a new look
Alar and Awati are important producers of cotton in Xinjiang, of which Awati is known as the national high-quality cotton production base, the hometown of China's long-staple cotton, and the cotton city of China, and other characteristic agricultural products such as the dates produced in the area are also sold well throughout the country.
Long-staple cotton is from Avati and the picker is from Aral
The industrial chain has gradually realized a closed loop in the local area (figure: 杔格)▼
The opening of the Awati Railway, in addition to connecting the corps city of Aral to the national railway network, will also end the history of railway access to Awati County along the line, and open up a railway channel for the export of local agricultural and forestry products and raw materials and products from industrial parks.
The platform of the newly opened Awati Station
A new generation of display screens (pictured: 杔格)▼ was also used
At 14:15 on the day of the opening of the A-A-Afghanistan Railway, the freight yard of Aral Station left the first freight train on time, loaded with 1904 tons of pvc, and drove to Zhejiang Changxing South Railway Station, which will be made into PVC pipes in the Yangtze River Delta region and sold at home and abroad.
The first train of the Afghan-Afghan Railway was a freight train (pictured: Zhaoge).
In the past, local enterprises in Aral shipped goods by rail, first by car to Aksu and then by rail to all parts of the country. The opening of the Afghanistan-Afghanistan Railway has shortened the short barge distance of more than 100 kilometers, which not only improves the efficiency of cargo transportation, but also reduces the transportation cost.
The freight yard at Aral Station is on the north side of the station and is not connected to the away yard
In terms of passenger transport, after the opening of the Afghanistan-Afghanistan Railway, the K9782/3 and K9784/1 passenger trains between urumqi and Aksu were used to extend the operation section, and the train was extended to Aral Station through Aksu Station.
K9782 was the last train to Aksu
After that, it becomes history (swipe left to see multiple figures, figure: 杔格)▼
Urumqi to Aral K9782/3, Urumqi departed at 21:37, and arrived in Aral at 11:50 the next day. Aral to Urumqi K9784/1, Aral departs at 20:20, and arrives in Urumqi at 9:58 the next day. The hard seat between Aksu and Aral costs $23.50.
The first two commemorative tickets for the passenger transport of the Afghan-Afghan Railway (Photo: Zhaoge)▼
The completion and opening of the Afghanistan-Afghanistan Railway is of great significance to strengthening the interaction and integration of soldiers and land, promoting exchanges and mutual assistance among the masses of all ethnic groups, promoting the high-quality development of the industrial and agricultural economy in southern Xinjiang, forming a new advantage of the Corps in maintaining stability and border in the new era, and promoting the development of the Corps to the south.
This year is also an important year for the opening of the new railway line in Xinjiang. In January of the beginning of the year, the Afghan-Afghan Railway, located on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, has just been opened; it is expected that at the end of June of the middle of the year, the Ruohe Railway at the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert will be opened, when the Southern Xinjiang Railway Ring Line will be formed, and the Taklamakan Desert will also be surrounded by railways.
—It is expected that by the end of June this year, the entire Ruohe Railway line will be opened to traffic▼
*The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau
Cover: 杔格
【Acknowledgements】The picture content of this article has received strong support from "China Railway Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd." and "Changguang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd.", and hereby thanks.
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