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As a reporter
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I've traveled the Middle East for many years.
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It's an area that's always fascinated me
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but in my work I've mainly covered it's war zones,
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it's crises and it's tragedies.
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This journey, which takes me down the Silk Road
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in the footsteps of Marco Polo,
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gives me the opportunity of exploring
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the great historical and cultural significance
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of this part of the world.
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Its ancient melting pot of peoples and civilizations
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that have contributed so much to our own.
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(mysterious music)
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(mysterious music)
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I've reached the Turpan Depression
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which descends to 154 meters below sea level.
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It's the second lowest point on Earth after the Dead Sea.
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On the edge of this trough are the Sandstone Fire
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or Flaming Mountains, one of the world's hottest spots.
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The temperature frequently reaches 50 Celsius
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or higher in summer and dips to minus 20 in winter.
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This causes extremely strong winds ranking 8 to 12
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on the Beaufort scale for four months a year.
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The oasis city of Gaochang was an important trade center
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on the northern branch of the Silk Road
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which skirts around the Taklamakan Desert
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linking Kashgar to Dunhuang,
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the starting point of the Great Wall of China.
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Despite the extreme climate on the edge of the Gobi Desert,
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the Turpan Depression has been known
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for its agriculture for millennia.
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Since ancient times the main crop has been grapes.
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This area is home to China's Uyghur ethnic minority,
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a Muslim people descended
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from the ancient Turkic tribes of the Steppe.
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This is my neighbor
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and she is the mistress of the house.
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Ah dumplings.
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Are the raisins up there?
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That's the loft up there.
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Let's go and see.
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Wow,
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that's a whole lot of raisins.
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(light piano music)
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Can I take one?
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These raisins are almost ready to be bagged.
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So there's a system of ventilation through the bricks.
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Okay, right.
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And these are the grapes drying in the sun.
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And those are the vines?
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It's huge, the entire valley.
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These grapes must be very sweet
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because if it's 50 degrees Celsius in the shade
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with the sun.
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The grape vine is a type of yana
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that thrives in difficult conditions.
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As any wine grower knows,
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poor soil and a burning hot sun
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produce the very best grapes.
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But here in Gaochang the farmers have to cut the vine
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very high up, two meters from the ground.
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Otherwise the ground reflects so much heat
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back into the canopy that the grapes burn.
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Even though the Silk Road caravaneers
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filled their bags with raisins,
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another Uyghur speciality spread around the world.
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China invented gun powder, writing, paper and silk.
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But of all their finds what I like best is pasta.
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Spaghetti, ravioli, tagliatelle.
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We know them by their Italian names,
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and yet pasta was invented in China 2,000 years ago.
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The traveler who pinched these women's ancestral recipe
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and took it all the way back to Venice
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after exploring the Silk Road was of course,
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Marco Polo.
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We often associate Chinese cuisine with rice
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but here in China's great northwest we are in wheat country.
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And the local cuisine clearly reflects the Uyghur's
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Turkic Mongol roots.
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(laughing)
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Lift your head up high.
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From their Nomadic origins, the Uyghurs have kept
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their incredible sense of hospitality.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Sit down and eat quietly.
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There's ginger in it.
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(speaking foreign language)
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There are slices of ginger.
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Wow, it's outstanding.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Bolognese, Italia.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Incredibly good, really delicious.
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(laughing)
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(speaking foreign language)
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Oh, you do it like that.
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(all laughing)
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(speaking foreign language)
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Ah Genghis Kahn is having another.
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Go on Genghis Kahn, eat it!
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He's devouring it as if he was
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going to conquer half of Asia.
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(speaking foreign language)
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He's strong this kid.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Very strong.
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Where the villages vines now grow there once stood,
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in the days of the ancient Silk Road
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a very imposing city nicknamed the
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Brilliant Pearl of the Caravans.
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(calm mysterious music)
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Marco Polo described the city of Gaochang
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as the capital of Uyghurstan,
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the land of the Uyghurs,
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vassals of the emperor Kublai Kahn,
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grandson of Genghis Kahn who conquered China
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and made Beijing his capital.
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But neither Kublai's protection nor it's imposing walls
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prevented Gaochang from being sacked
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by wild a Mongol horde in the late 13th century,
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just after Marco Polo's sojourn.
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To retake Gaochang a Chinese general diverted the channels
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supplying the city.
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Deprived of water the survivors decided
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to abandon Gaochang for good.
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All that remains of these vast ruins,
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preserved over the centuries by the aridity of the desert.
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Gaochang was not only a stopping point for traders
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traveling the Silk Road,
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it was also renowned as a center of learning.
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Buddhist pilgrims spread their faith here
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on arriving from India.
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The Nestorian Christians erected churches
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and the Persian influence is still very much in evidence.
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(mysterious somber music)
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Huge Manikian frescoes have been found here.
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Founded by the Iranian prophet Mani,
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Manichaeism saw the universe
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as a struggle between good and evil.
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At the time when Manichaeism was flourishing here in China
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it was stamped out in France around Albi
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with the suppression of the Cathars.
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On the outskirts of Gaochang stands a new temple
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built 15 years ago to highlight today's dominant culture
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in the Gobi Desert.
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Sign of the Dragon, the Rabbit or the Monkey
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the Zodiac of the Han Chinese succeeded the Zoroastrianism
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of the Persians.
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The statue of Nu-gua, Creator Goddess of the Hand
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watches over the site.
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Like her brother and husband Fu Xi,
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she has a human head and a serpent's body.
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The Mother Goddess of Chinese mythology is in fact,
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guarding the entrance of a huge cemetery.
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Over the course of 15 centuries,
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the inhabitants of Gaochang dug a vast necropolis here.
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The complex covers 10 square kilometers
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and contains over 1,000 tombs and vaults.
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The climate is so dry in the Turpan Basin,
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the corpses have been naturally mummified.
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The remains are often those of Han settlers.
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Evidence of 2,000 years of Chinese efforts
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to include the Gobi in the Middle Kingdom.
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But the oldest bodies which date from the Iron Age
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reveal faces of a people close to the Europeans,
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lost very far to the east since the dawn of history.
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Unlike the mummies of the Egyptian pharaohs,
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these men and women were not embalmed.
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They never asked to appear immortal.
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Maybe it's better to let them rest in peace.
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A few kilometers north of the ancient city of Gaochang
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lies the oasis city of Turpan.
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This caravan stop as regained a degree of prosperity
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thanks to oil drilling.
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It's evident at first glance
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that the central government in Beijing
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is investing massively in the region.
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And yet traditional China is still very much in evidence
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in the city's backstreets.
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Among other things, the bizarre sells Manti,
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the Asian dumplings found all over the Steppe
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from Ukraine to Mongolia.
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Turpan may owe a lot to oil but it's real wealth
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comes from an even more previous resource: water.
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Even though the city is in the middle of the desert,
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there's a plentiful supply of water here.
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It isn't naturally occurring though.
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Instead it flows through the city
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thanks to a complex network of channels and tunnels
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which take advantage of the fact
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that Turpan is the second lowest place on Earth.
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This water conveyance system is believed
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to have originated in Persia,
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where channels are still used in arid areas
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to irrigate farmland.
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The technology spread throughout Arab Muslim world
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and is still found today in Andalusia and Morocco.
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In Turpan the tunnels or channels are known as karez.
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Some are over 100 meters underground.
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They form a fast 5,000 meter long network.
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Gotta make the best of things.
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Great!
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According to custom each street clubs together
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to pay for maintenance work.
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When work starts, the owner of the house
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closest to the site treats everyone to roast sheep.
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(intense suspenseful music)
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Very agile and very far from claustrophobic
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the karez clan have to constantly repair
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and dredge kilometers and kilometers of shafts,
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tunnels and pipes.
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Armed with only shovels, pickaxes
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and the knowledge of their boss
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the old Hagi Anduneas.
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It's really impressive because this technology
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is over three thousand years old.
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This system is known as a qanat in Iran.
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It's spread across the Middle East,
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Central Asia as far as here on the edge of the Gobi.
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The Uyghur call it karez,
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the system that taps into subterranean water
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here at the foot of the mountains
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and conveys it to the Turpan Depression
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creating the oasis.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Hagi, how do you become a karez digger?
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Is it a tradition from father to son
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or is it a choice?
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(speaking foreign language)
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We are the fourth generation to work in the karez.
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Our grandparents worked here before us.
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This karez is seven kilometers long
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and I've been working in it for 20 years.
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The galleries seem pretty fragile,
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there are no frames.
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Are you ever afraid the earth will fall on you?
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It falls on us sometimes but we're not scared.
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We carry right on.
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It occasionally falls on our heads but we keep on working.
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We're not scared, we're used to it.
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(speaking foreign language)
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What are you and your team actually doing?
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Why are you digging in this tunnel full of earth?
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We are hard at work, the water is blocked.
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They have to remove all this mud
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so the water can flow again.
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It's a long and complicated process.
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They have to draw the water down there
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and make it flow.
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So the stream was so clogged up
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the water was actually passing under the concrete pipe
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that you've installed here?
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You're clearing all that earth that we can see here
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to raise the level of the stream so it flows
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through the pipe again.
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Is that right?
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Yes, that's right.
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Okay, I understand.
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Ah that's it!
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The water is starting to flow on the right there.
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(water flowing)
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(speaking foreign language)
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Ah, the karez diggers.
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Oh yes, I can see the stream clearly now.
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(simple flute music)
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Mm, tastes good.
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It's spring water.
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00:15:21,050 --> 00:15:22,400
There's a second hole here.
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00:15:25,940 --> 00:15:29,170
Thousands of shafts provide access to the channels.
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00:15:29,170 --> 00:15:31,030
Built in the courtyards of people's homes
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they serve as wells.
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(simple flute music)
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Turpan's water made it possible to farm the land
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and build a civilization.
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These days though,
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China is trying to harness the wind.
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Turpan is home to one of the largest
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wind farms in the world.
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The ancient city of Yar illustrates
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the persistence of China's activities in the region.
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00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:00,800
The Han established a garrison here as early as
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00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:02,520
the second century CE.
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Built on the spur-like plateau
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between the two arms of a river,
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the origins of Yar, or Jiaohe date back to ancient times
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and no one knows who it's first inhabitants were.
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Like the other major stops along the Silk Road,
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Yar was a focal point for Asia's cultures,
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ideas and religions as archeologist
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00:16:19,548 --> 00:16:21,673
Su Jeong Yang explains.
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00:16:22,900 --> 00:16:24,140
What was the period of occupation
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00:16:24,140 --> 00:16:25,843
of this impressive city of Yar
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00:16:25,843 --> 00:16:28,333
and how many people lived here in it's heyday?
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The maximum population was about 17 thousand households.
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00:16:34,050 --> 00:16:36,333
That was in the time of the Tang dynasty.
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(mysterious somber music)
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00:16:46,770 --> 00:16:49,050
Almost two-thirds of Yar are troglodyte dwellings
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and yet at the same time,
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the entire city is made of this sort of very porous earth.
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Is there a link between the two?
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00:16:56,792 --> 00:16:59,601
The architecture of Yar is made of earth.
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There are sandstorms throughout the year.
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Sand is deposited in the Depression
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00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,360
and it forms a layer of sediment or soil known as loas.
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00:17:10,749 --> 00:17:14,290
This loas is very compact and easy to dig and build with.
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Turpan has always been a very hot region
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and it's obviously cooler underground
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00:17:19,874 --> 00:17:23,370
so the people of the time began to carve out this city
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00:17:23,370 --> 00:17:26,730
resulting in this very distinctive architecture.
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The particularity of dwellings carved out of
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00:17:28,970 --> 00:17:31,140
this type of soil is the deeper they are,
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the more recent they are,
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while those closer to the surface are older.
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It's very different to archeological layers.
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The city's architecture results from
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00:17:41,190 --> 00:17:44,310
these different factors: that is the climate conditions,
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00:17:44,310 --> 00:17:45,550
the search for coolness
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and the existence of a geological depression.
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For the Chinese authorities
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Yar is an important archeological and tourist site
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as it highlights the centuries old presence of the Han
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00:17:58,410 --> 00:18:01,238
in some parts of the autonomous region of Xinjiang
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alongside the Uyghur's and vast Tibetan kingdoms.
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The city is also a Buddhist treasure trove.
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This 15 meter high brick cone
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is one of China's oldest stupors.
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Yar was a major center on the Silk Road
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particularly for the propagation of Buddhism.
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How did it reach here and why?
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In the fourth century,
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there were already many temples here.
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00:18:29,868 --> 00:18:33,553
Buddhism reached Turpan through trade related activities.
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00:18:35,500 --> 00:18:38,580
East to west and west to east communication
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did not only concern trade,
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00:18:40,430 --> 00:18:43,433
but also the dissemination of cultures and religions.
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In it's heyday, roughly how many monks live on this site?
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In the great pagoda on this square
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there must have been over 1,000 monks.
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It was large enough to accommodate monks
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from many different countries at the same time
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so there were a lot.
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00:19:13,990 --> 00:19:15,240
In the north of the city,
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there's the necropolis and the stupors.
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Here in the center,
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there's the huge Buddhist monastery
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and the monk's quarters.
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In the south there's the royal palace
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and the royal family's residencies.
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So where did mere mortals live?
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Yar was the country's capital city
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so it's inhabitants were mainly nobles,
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kings and monks and most of the common people
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lived outside the city.
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If you look at the layout of the citadel
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you can make out the residences of a few important families.
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Between them there were streets connecting the houses
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00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,980
to one another but at each crossroads,
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there was always a pagoda.
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This means one pagoda would be used for worship
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by several families.
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The hightest ranking families also owned Buddha statues
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for home worship.
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When you walk around Yar you get the impression
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time suddenly stopped from one day to the next.
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As if a natural disaster had struck the city
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00:20:32,110 --> 00:20:32,943
like in Pompeii.
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00:20:33,930 --> 00:20:35,230
But actually happened?
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00:20:35,230 --> 00:20:36,730
Why is everything disappeared?
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00:20:37,655 --> 00:20:41,940
Around the 13th century during the Mongol conquests,
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00:20:41,940 --> 00:20:44,384
Yar was destroyed by war.
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00:20:44,384 --> 00:20:47,240
And after the war the city's old wells,
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about 300 wells were practically all abandoned
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because they'd either dried up
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00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,760
or were full of corpses and it was impossible
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00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:57,680
to go on living here.
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00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,970
Outside the city water was still accessible
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00:20:59,970 --> 00:21:02,946
and so the inhabitants chose to move there.
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00:21:02,946 --> 00:21:05,196
As a result the city was gradually abandoned.
379
00:21:07,410 --> 00:21:09,570
Yar may have been swallowed up by the desert
380
00:21:09,570 --> 00:21:11,823
but Xinjiang's present capital is booming.
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00:21:12,930 --> 00:21:14,900
Urumqi has a population of two million.
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00:21:14,900 --> 00:21:17,093
By Chinese standards it's pretty small
383
00:21:17,093 --> 00:21:18,930
but this city on the edge of the desert
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00:21:18,930 --> 00:21:21,493
sees itself as a cosmopolitan metropolis.
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00:21:22,693 --> 00:21:25,860
(upbeat techno music)
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00:21:36,860 --> 00:21:39,270
The imposing one child policy was never imposed
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on Xinjiang's national minorities
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00:21:42,020 --> 00:21:44,960
and Urumqi's colorful youth very definitely reflect
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00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:46,210
the face of modern China.
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A dynamic, confident society with it's sights set
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00:21:49,380 --> 00:21:50,453
firmly on the future.
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00:21:51,730 --> 00:21:54,382
A country set to take over as the worlds largest economy
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00:21:54,382 --> 00:21:57,490
which borrows from the west whatever it wants.
394
00:21:57,490 --> 00:21:59,713
Including sometimes, from France.
395
00:22:02,750 --> 00:22:05,870
What do you call this sport and how long you been doing it?
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00:22:05,870 --> 00:22:07,630
This sport is called Parkour.
397
00:22:07,630 --> 00:22:09,790
Ah, from the French Parkour.
398
00:22:09,790 --> 00:22:10,623
Yes.
399
00:22:13,336 --> 00:22:14,873
How long you been doing it?
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00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:18,320
I started eight years ago.
401
00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,380
As in the days of the ancient Silk Road
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00:22:22,380 --> 00:22:25,000
that park is a meeting place for different peoples.
403
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,325
Young Uyghurs, Mongols and Hans united
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00:22:27,325 --> 00:22:31,083
by a shared passion that has it's roots in Chinese Kung Fu.
405
00:22:33,020 --> 00:22:34,720
What made you want to try Parkour?
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00:22:37,590 --> 00:22:39,290
I loved running around as a kid.
407
00:22:41,458 --> 00:22:45,107
I really enjoyed weaving in and out of people.
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00:22:48,036 --> 00:22:49,560
When I was older I saw a French movie
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called Bon Trieze
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00:22:51,950 --> 00:22:54,100
and I learned all the moves I'd seen in it.
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Looks as though, as I understand it,
412
00:22:59,350 --> 00:23:01,910
Parkour or free running combines Chinese martial arts
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00:23:01,910 --> 00:23:04,629
and French or rather western influences.
414
00:23:04,629 --> 00:23:07,320
I think the very swift, abrupt movements
415
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,403
probably came from the Chinese tradition.
416
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:14,897
Bruce Lee said "Be water."
417
00:23:15,890 --> 00:23:18,150
Our course is like water,
418
00:23:18,150 --> 00:23:19,743
it's fluid, it flows.
419
00:23:21,899 --> 00:23:24,449
And in western culture they probably have that too.
420
00:23:25,750 --> 00:23:28,120
Frenchman David Bell said that Parkour
421
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:31,290
and Chinese philosophy was an obvious match.
422
00:23:31,290 --> 00:23:33,590
I don't think Parkour is a combination of Chinese
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00:23:33,590 --> 00:23:35,720
and western cultures but an obvious step
424
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:37,540
in the evolution of humankind,
425
00:23:37,540 --> 00:23:38,883
in my mind anyways.
426
00:23:43,650 --> 00:23:46,470
From Kung Fu to the Yamakasi of the Paris suburbs,
427
00:23:46,470 --> 00:23:48,250
the sport of Parkour is a wonderful,
428
00:23:48,250 --> 00:23:51,180
contemporary example of the dialogue with the west,
429
00:23:51,180 --> 00:23:54,610
which has always characterized the Gobi Desert region.
430
00:23:54,610 --> 00:23:57,777
(upbeat techno music)
431
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:02,871
(laughing)
432
00:24:02,871 --> 00:24:05,150
Does this sport, which combines different influences
433
00:24:05,150 --> 00:24:07,090
reflect your own cultural mix?
434
00:24:07,090 --> 00:24:10,623
Uyghur, Han, Mongol, everything you are in the city?
435
00:24:14,101 --> 00:24:17,510
As it's an internationally recognized sport,
436
00:24:17,510 --> 00:24:20,350
it's been adopted by every ethnic group blacks,
437
00:24:20,350 --> 00:24:21,563
whites, Asians.
438
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:26,870
Practicing this sport is a real pleasure.
439
00:24:26,870 --> 00:24:29,123
It brings you joy.
440
00:24:31,211 --> 00:24:32,951
Everyone wants to be happy,
441
00:24:32,951 --> 00:24:35,380
that's why practitioners of Parkour
442
00:24:35,380 --> 00:24:37,530
form a collective naturally.
443
00:24:37,530 --> 00:24:38,910
Freedom is what we want.
444
00:24:55,970 --> 00:24:57,830
Prosperity versus freedom.
445
00:24:57,830 --> 00:25:00,480
That's the premise of the People's Republic of China.
446
00:25:01,450 --> 00:25:03,730
The regime wants to ease separatists tensions
447
00:25:03,730 --> 00:25:05,183
in Xinjiang at all costs.
448
00:25:06,330 --> 00:25:09,280
Beijing is investing massively in the region's development
449
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,380
and plans to improve its connections
450
00:25:11,380 --> 00:25:13,000
with the rest of the country.
451
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:14,870
In particular thanks to this brand new,
452
00:25:14,870 --> 00:25:16,203
high-speed rail station.
453
00:25:18,420 --> 00:25:20,020
The high-speed rail line is part of a
454
00:25:20,020 --> 00:25:21,893
multi-billion yuan project.
455
00:25:25,610 --> 00:25:28,383
A project aptly named The New Silk Road.
456
00:25:30,084 --> 00:25:33,334
(mellow Chinese music)
34797
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