Reconnaissance Notes for the 1996 Tien Shan Field Trip to
Xinjiang
Reconnaissance Notes for the 1996 Tien Shan Field Trip to
Xinjiang
The following is a transcription of notes that I took during a reconnaissance field trip to the Chinese Tien Shan in 1996. The figures are photos taken on the trip.
A few comments on this text:
17 October, Thursday
Auspicious beginning: I arrived at the Albany terminal at 8:50 AM, one hour before my AA flight to NYC, and I am told that the flight has been canceled, so was sent to USAir with a Carey Bus voucher to get me from Laguardia to JFK. Arthur showed up later and the flight was reinstated, so he went on AA and wondered where I was. Eventually we meet up at the NW check in terminal at JFK.
Next problem is we find that the leg of our NW flight from Tokyo to Beijing has been canceled. NW agents say the Chinese travel agent should have notified us of this (the Air China agent in Pasadena). Some argument about what to do next. Agent wants us to wait a day; I say no way. Finally resolved by getting us on a late Asiana (Korean) flight to Seoul which should get us to Beijing on time (via a Korean Air connection). So, no night over in Beijing this time, but a long sit in JFK.
18 October, Friday
A day with no sun: Left JFK at 11:50 PM on the 17th, stopped over in Anchorage for one hour (snow/cold there; -9o F). Landed in Seoul at 6 AM local time. Thus, went through to 19 October with no sun. On the upside, I slept a lot on the plane, and am now in good shape physically - seems that overnight flights are a good idea.
High point of trip: Saw a "Mr. Bean" flick on the Asiana flight. The British really know how to do twits.
Note: Seoul time is NY time + 13 hours, Beijing time is NY time + 12 hours
19 October, Saturday
Flew Korean Air from Seoul to Beijing. Took about 1 hr. Customs/Passport control was easy and much faster than I expected. Only took 15 minutes or so, and we passed through the Green Channel with no problem. Note on customs: sign says that there is a restriction on some technical items like cameras, computers, etc. You are allowed to bring in one per person (I suppose to prevent selling on the market). No idea how serious this is.
Note: to get to the domestic part of the terminal, turn left after you exit customs and walk up a flight of stairs. You must pay an airport tax (50Y)- buy a ticket at the counter on the upper level. Then pass through a gate; leaving 1/2 of the ticket with the collector.
The gate locations are not obvious, and change frequently. If you don't speak Chinese (the Public Address dialect, anyway) it would pay to be on your toes.
Checking in for the Urumqi flight was my first real feeling that I was back in Asia, although only partially. Passenger bordering chaotic and a lot of pushing for no reason, but bureaucracy and administration surprisingly efficient.
The plane was a TU-154 rented by Xinjiang airways from "Air Volga" (old Aeroflot) - now I feel like I'm back in the USSR (you don't know how lucky you are, boy). Lots of crowding and shoving as people with massive amounts of carry on fight to claim space. Remarkably, the flight attendants are calm and in control.
Green tea served on the flight - very nice. Also got a complimentary cuff link and tie clasp in a red felt box. Wow. Too bad I don't wear ties or cuffs.
Scene at Urumqi a bit zooie but nothing unexpected. Met at the airport by Yin Guanghua (Mr. GPS) and Wei Roping (Ms. Foreign affairs). They are very nice. Ms. Wei speaks some English but I can see that it was a very good idea to bring Arthur along.
Mr. Chen is the driver. He has a nice Mitsubishi Pajero that I understand is to be our field vehicle. He takes us to the "Tarim Hotel", a.k.a. the "Tarim Petroleum Mansion" (slick). Moderate quality; reminds me a lot of Soviet style hotel design (shades of Gastenitsu Akademia Nauk in Moscow), and I gather that it is a government hotel as well reserved for "experts" (not the quality of the Holiday Inn in town - I gather it is substantially cheaper as well).
In his physical appearance, Yin Guanghua looks to me like a Chinese Brad Hager. Is this what happens when you get too involved with GPS?
The four of us spent some time discussing the field trip, which we embark upon tomorrow morning. Some notes from that conversation: GPS, at least in the Urumqi area, may be a sensitive military issue. Need to sort this out. The seismic station YIK apparently does not operate anymore. It was a coal mine and now is abandoned.
Note that the "official time" here is same as in Beijing, but the "practical time" (i.e. the time for going to work, etc. ) is two hours earlier (e.g. noon in official time is when you take your 10 AM coffee break in Urumqi).
Money: Changed $400 (cash, as we were in a hurry) at airport in Beijing at a rate of 8.08 Y/USD. Not very favorable! Conversation with Yin and Wei about expense estimates cost of this trip at $2000. Much of this apparently is for "foreign service fees" which I guess we only have to do once.
20 October Sunday
Woke early (6am) did some typing. Ate breakfast in hotel buffet - pretty good food. Met with assistant director, Mr. Amati. Talked a bit about all the money pouring into Xinjiang from Beijing for development. Nice in theory but not clear how this helps us out. Left in Mr. Chen's Mitsubishi about 10 AM.
Headed SE along main highway, passing through main part of Urumqi. Urumqi is a gray and ugly town; all "Soviet era" architecture and construction style. I hear there is an "old town" but no idea what that is like. Anyway, I didn't feel sad to leave. The SE road leads into a large alluvial plain. It was cloudy so I couldn't see very far, but all was brown or gray. Not much in the way of vegetation.
The train to the SE goes near the road for much of its length. There is a lot of garbage on the side of the road due to people throwing stuff out of the train.
Ms. Wei says that bus/train travel from Urumqi/Alma Ata is pretty efficient and about half the price of the plane fare. Takes a bit more than a day to travel. Train is twice a week. Bus is more often but not clear how often.
NB: Ms Wei is from Sichuan; moved to Urumqi in 1962 with her family. She has a 10 year old daughter. Mr. Yin is from Hebei, moved to Urumqi in the 80's after university. Mr. Chen is from Shanghai, and moved to Urumqi 20 years ago. He apparently has had a lot of experience driving tourists and geologists around.
Got into mountains finally. Lots of road work due to heavy rains in summer causing landslides. South to Turfan depression, which really is depressing. Lunch at a small roadside place in Toksun (Figure 1.2a,b) frequented by Mr. Chen. Noodles and meat and garlic (similar to Loghman); pretty tasty. Got to watch the guy make the noodles for lunch. Stopped on the road south a short while later as someone was setting off an explosion. Tried out my hand-held GPS receiver and got a fix at 42 41.07; 88 35.09; 290 m). Nothing special about this point although I did water the depression. (historians take note).
| Figure 1.2a. Toksun Lunch Break Chef making noodles in roadside restaurant in the town of Toksun, near the Turfan Depression. We consumed these very noodles for lunch just moments later. Tasty, and certainly fresh! |
| Figure 1.2b. Toksun Lunch Break Part of the crew having lunch. From left, Yin Guanghua, Mr. Chen (the driver) and yours truly. Photo by Arthur Chen. |
Immense flat expanse of gravely alluvium. Back into the mountains I was taken by the fans of fine grain sand that cover the bedrock at high relief. Seems to be massive or fine grain with nothing in between. Weird. Like someone with a big bucket dumped sand all over the mountains.
Entering Tarim basin now, with relief to the right (north). Scene Reminds me a bit of the route from Alma Ata to Bishkek in Kazachstan. Eventually made it to the town of Korla at about 6PM; checked into the Loulan hotel and headed out for dinner.
We met briefly with some local seismic station guys. One was Li du chong and other was Mr. Suun. One is head of the Korla station, which operates under auspices of Xinjiang bureau, other is head of the now defunct YIK station. Some problem to see YIK because local guy must come with us. Eventually this is solved by his agreeing to take bus back to Korla.
Korla is on the edge of a lake (Borsen) and a river runs through town. The area is quite lush compared to what we've been through thus far. Dinner was Tsaojoe style from Sandung region. Nice and good variety. Talked some with Ms. Wei about economic situation - seems that Mao's China is really long gone, even in this remote area. Everything works by the market now. There are many shashleek stalls in the bazaar operated by the Uygurs; they appear to have outlived Mao. I suppose there is a socio- economic lesson there.
Back at hotel, had a long discussion with Mr. Yin about working in this area. Main topic of discussion as the situation near the border. He says it is not straightforward as several areas are still officially off limits to foreigners. However, it appears that it is possible to get permission from local officials; I understand now that this is what Shi Jianbang meant when he talked about the "opening of areas to foreigners" fee. There is some emphasis that this not be done through Beijing - all politics is local, even in China (to borrow from Tip O'Neal).
We also discussed the status of GPS in the eastern Tien Shan. It appears that there are about 10 monuments installed in a cooperative German/Beijing effort. The Beijing group involved is something like the Ministry of Geodesy (or National Mapping and Geodetic survey).
Note: Road quality so far has been pretty good and you can zoom down some stretches of road at a 60-70 mph clip. So far the "white knuckles" feeling hasn't kicked in, although we saw a woman recently struck by a car (knocked off bicycle apparently) near Korla. Surprised we don't see dozens like that.
Heavy rain during the night. Thought this was supposed to be a desert!
21 October, 1996 Monday
Korla Station
Started day off with a breakfast that included salted tea; this apparently is a Mongol style and this area is a "Mongol Autonomous Region". Drove a few km SE of town to visit the Korla station. Korla is an impressive installation. On the way to the seismic station there is a tiltmeter vault a few 100 meters off the road that consists of three tunnels some 90 meters in length each (figures 1.3-1.4). Only the first of these is occupied by instrumentation. The other tunnels were dug as a fall out shelter.
| Figure 1.3. Station KORLA. View of one of the tiltmeter vaults. At the end is a door leading to another large tunnel. |
| Figure 1.4. Station KORLA. Entrance to the tiltmeter vault complex. Operator is standing at the door. |
The seismic station itself is located at the end of the paved road beyond a hydroelectric facility. It is a complex of living quarters and another impressive vault (figures 1.5-1.7). There is a monument used for GPS at the top, apparently installed by, or on the advice of, Roger Bilham.
| Figure 1.5. Station KORLA. Room in vault with intermediate and long period seismometers on piers. In the back are Kirnos seismomters the are no longer used. Long period sensors are in fron. |
| Figure 1.6. Station KORLA. Room in vault with short period and strong ground motion seismometers on piers. In the back are short period seismomters. Strong ground motion seismometers in the front. |
| Figure 1.7. Station KORLA. Entrance to the seismic vault. GPS monument is on top of outcrop above this entryway. |
Drove back into town and picked up one of the regional seismic chiefs, Mr. Ma Yang Sha, and then drove west to the town of Luntai, to the north of which is the location of the former station at Yangsha YIK, which hasn't operated in the past four years due to termination of funding. Here are a few pictures taken along the way (figures 1.8-1.10)
| Figure 1.8. Road to Luntai. Telephone repairman working without a net (or a ladder!); he hangs suspended by the telephone wire. Tien Shan in the background. |
| Figure 1.9. Luntai. Local meat market in small village. |
| Figure 1.10. Luntai. Fresh meat at the roadside restaruant where we ate lunch. Can you guess which one is the graduate student? |
Yangsha Station (YIK)
Yangsha station (figures 1.11-1.14) is located in the middle of a very active coal mining operation (you can see trucks carrying coal nearly continuously on the highway). The site was in an abandoned mine which is dug 30 m into the mountainside and then turns to the right and descends at a steep grade (maybe 50 degrees) to a concrete pad about 60 m down (the mine itself goes farther). Apparently this was a very quiet site, despite the truck traffic at the surface, but there are some disadvantages. First, humidity is high, and water gets into the mine when it rains. Flooding is not a problem, but they did have to take the seismometer out of the vaults twice a month for drying. Second, the road is pretty crummy and slow to drive.
The mine was abandoned because someone perished in it about 20 years ago and the miners refuse to go in.
GPS determined coordinates of a point on the road above the entrance to the mine: 42 07.83; 84 26.26 (figure 1.11a). Closest town is Luntai.
Note on power: at present there is no power to the house in front of the station, but there should be by next April. In any event all power to the mining camp goes off for several hours each night. Security should not be a problem. GPS siting at this particular point is only fair as we are in a valley here.
| Figure 1.11a. Station Yangsha. Steve getting coordinates with handheld GPS. Our Mitusbishi Pajero is to the rear. Photo by Arthur Chen. |
| Figure 1.11b. Station Yangsha. View of the operator's house in front of the mine. Currently occupied by a mining family. |
| Figure 1.12. Station Yangsha. Local geology. Some very red Carboniferous meta-sediments. Unfortunately this picture failed to show how red they truly are. |
| Figure 1.13. Station Yangsha. Entrance to the mine. View looking to the south. Opening is about 3 feet high. |
| Figure 1.14. Station Yangsha. Some of the crew on hand at Yangsha, standing in front of the operator's house. From left: Ma Yangsha, director of the seismic station, Yin Guanghua of PBSX, ???, the director of the mining operation, and a random guy who wanted to be in the picture. |
Kocha Station
Drove to Kocha that night, checked into hotel and ate. Visited the local station, located very close to the hotel, and operated by Amlet Amati (figure 1.15) and a technician. This station has been moved several time because of the expansion of the population of Kocha, the most recent major effort being the construction of an impressive vault near Amlet's house. Unfortunately the town has grown over the vault (witness the hotel) and it became much too noisy for short period data. Now they have constructed a facility at the surface (see sheet) some km from town and the data is telemetered back to Amlet's facility.
Power at site is solar. They visit the site once or twice a month to check on the battery.
Amlet is a great guy and showed typical Uyger hospitality by having a big spread of fruit and bread and tea laid out for us, even though it was pretty late. He has two cute little girls who waited on us.
Really tired tonight. Almost passed out talking to Amlet.
| Figure 1.15. Station KOCHA. At the home of the station chief, Almet Amati. Amlet is sitting in the middle, flanked by his two gratious daughters. Note traditional Uygur bread at center right of photo. |
22 October Tuesday.
Baijeng Station
Woke early with plans to have a fast start but had a flat tire so this slowed us down a bit. Drove to Baijeng station (figures 1.16-2.3); got there about noon. Seismometer is located in a vault 15 km north of town. GPS site coordinates: 41 52.00 81 37.50 at a point above vault where geodetic tripod sits (I guess there is a monument here already). Data is telemetered to station in town. Shepherd lives at the base of the hill where vault sits. He is the security.
Great lunch in town; got a taste of the local peppers with "big plate chicken". Station chief is a great guy.
| Figure 1.16. Station Baijeng. View from the top of the hill upon which the station is built, looking north to the Tien Shan. |
| Figure 1.17. Station Baijeng. Interior of the vault. Short period seismometers are on the pief. |
| Figure 1.18. Station Baijeng. Interior of the vault, slightly different perspective from Figure 1.17. Note telemetry gear hanging from ceiling. |
| Figure 1.19. Station Baijeng. Entrance to the vault. Wei Rouping included for scale and visual effect. |
| Figure 1.20. Station Baijeng. View of vault from a short distance downhill. Note the tripod at the top of the hils that denotes the location of a GSP monument. |
| Figure 1.21. Station Baijeng. View of vault from a base of hill, looking north |
| Figure 2.1. Station Baijeng. View of vault from beginning hill, looking north. Note power poles leading up to vault. |
| Figure 2.2. Station Baijeng. Shepard's quarters at base of hill. Most of the family dwelling quarters are below ground. |
| Figure 2.3. Station Baijeng. The local operator () and this technical assistant. |
Wushi Station
Drove on through Aksu to Wushi and visited the Geoscope facility there (they needed to drop off some spare parts anyway). Impressive site (figures 2.4-2.8). The French built them an entirely new building to house the electronics. Many people here - 2 work on Geoscope and about 12 work on the short period station (haven't a clue as to what they do). There is a GPS monument here - this could be a reasonable site for GPS.
Had a splitting headache, I think mostly as a result of incessant bouncing in car for hours on end for several days now. Neck really stiff. This cleared up after some tea and fruit at Wushi, however.
| Figure 2.4. Station WUSHI. Vault with Geoscope STS-1 sensor (rear) and "geophone" (front). |
| Figure 2.5. Station WUSHI. Entrance to vault, with some of the local crew, including Arthur Chen and Wei Rouping (far left). |
| Figure 2.6. Station WUSHI. Stairs leading up to vault, Arthur Chan descending. |
| Figure 2.7. Station WUSHI. View of local bedrock, within which the WUSHI station is located. Entrance to the vault is about 1/3 of the way up in the middle of the picture. |
| Figure 2.8. Station WUSHI. Kids having a great time playing in a mountain of corn in front of the operators' complex. |
Peking Duck for dinner; really good.
Long talk that night with Yin Guanghua about GPS in Xinjiang. A lot more has been happening than I would have thought. Summary follows.
There are a number of monuments in Xinjiang that have been surveyed at least once with GPS receivers, some 2-3 times. There are 15 "regional" monuments located in or near the following towns:
| Location | Monument located in: |
| Urumqi | Sandstone |
| Korla | 39 cm through cover to metamorphic rock |
| Kustin | seds |
| Nulatec | Metamorphic |
| Kudse | Sandstone |
| Yining | Seds |
| Utuan | Tert./Quaternary Seds |
| Suetuan | Seds |
| Wushi | metamorphic rock |
| Bachu/Tsa Chako | Seds |
| Wuqia | Sandstone |
| Jiashi | Seds |
| Shacho | Seds |
| Pisan | Seds |
| Tashkurgan | Seds |
In addition, there are 3 dense networks that Yin described: the Ili network between National Geodetic guys and the Germans; the Altyn Tagh line done with Roger Bilham and a line through the central Tien Shan that Yin surveyed (see tourist map for locations).
Yin has 4 Trimble SSE's, but different bureaus have different makes of receivers (Lieca, Rouge, but no Ashtech).
23 October Wednesday
Aksu Station
Visited Aksu station in the morning (figures 2.9-2.19). This is one of the main bases for technical operations of the network. Visited the seismic vault and the tiltmeter installation; this is located near a reservoir and, unfortunately, the road.
Back at the Aksu station we talked about the other stations in the Aksu net (see notes). Some discussion with the station chief; he is a nice guy and is anxious to help out. He's proud to have 100% data recovery; won an award from SSB for best technical operation. Could be usable technicians here.
| Figure 2.9. Station AKSU. Short period sensors on pier within the Atsu vault. |
| Figure 2.10. Station AKSU. Short period sensors on pier within the Atsu vault. A different perspective from 2.9, so that you can see how tall the structure is. |
| Figure 2.11. Station AKSU. Exterior view of the vault, showing entryway |
| Figure 2.12. Station AKSU. Exterior view of the vault, showing entryway. Note long pole for telemetry in the back of the vault. |
| Figure 2.14. Station AKSU. Approach to the hills within which the station is located. Bedrock is mostly sandstone. View looking to the north. |
| Figure 2.15. Station AKSU. Interior of the Tiltmeter vault. |
| Figure 2.16. Station AKSU. Entrance to the tiltmeter vault. |
| Figure 2.18. Station AKSU. Chilies and garlic drying in the sun on a bed in one of the living chambers at the station. Yummy! |
| Figure 2.19. Station AKSU. The crew. From left, a technician, Yin Guanghua, another tech, Arthur, Wu Rouping, the chief, our driver Mr. Chen, and the assistant chief. |
After exchanging a few additional pleasantries we headed out for Korla. A few of the pictures taken appear below (figure 2.20-2.24). Arrived rather late at night. Dinner was at a restaurant near the hotel; mediocre - guess I'm getting spoiled!
| Figure 2.20. Road to Korla. Fruit sellers by the roadside in a small town. |
| Figure 2.21. Road to Korla. Typical roadside restaurant. Note fresh meat hanging near the entrance. |
| Figure 2.22. Road to Korla. Truck traffic. Actually, this view is accentuated by road work causing a backup, but psychological effect is the same. |
| Figure 2.23. Road to Korla. The view to the south, over the alluvium to the Tarim basin. Not much in the way of relief. |
| Figure 2.24. Road to Korla. Ruins of old signal towers that dot the northern edge of the Tarim. As I understand, there were several of these built for purposes of early warning: if an invading army approached, the soldiers posted at these towers would set off fireworks to warn the soldiers at the next tower down the line, and so forth until the message reached the principal forces well to the east. |
24 October Thursday
Mongol breakfast again. Presents handed out. Stopped to see GPS monument situated on part of old strain measuring complex located not far from Korla (figures 3.1-3.4). Complex was abandoned a few years ago and several years of measurement produced no signal.
I got a bad headache again from 11-2. This has to be due to driving induced stress combined with bumpy road. However, there does seem to be a correlation as well with my drinking the Chinese bottled water. Seems to happen about 1-2 hours later. Too few data points to be conclusive, however.
| Figure 3.1. Geodetic Monuments near Korla. Close up of monument used for GPS monitoring. There is a small indentation at the center of the nipp[le. Camera case for scale. |
| Figure 3.2. Geodetic Monuments near Korla. A view of the concrete enclosure of the monument shown in 3.1. (3.1 is a close up of this picture). |
| Figure 3.3. Geodetic Monuments near Korla. View of complex of geodetic stations once used to monitor strain. Site was abandoned as no signal was ever detected. Arthur and Yin Guanghua in picture; the monument in figures 3.1 and 3.2 is just to the right of Arthur (dark jacket). |
| Figure 3.4. Geodetic Monuments near Korla. Different angle from 3.3, showin the line of monuments at the installation. |
Got a flat tire on the part of the road being repaired in the mountains. Got it fixed in the next town, which is Dabanchen. This place was famous for uncommonly beautiful Uyger women as recently as 100 years ago, but apparently intermarriage degraded that.
Billiard tables are everywhere.
Took pictures of big piles of sand in mountains just before Turfan depression (Figures 3.5-3.7). Could these be Eolian deposits from the Gobi? Curious.
| Figure 3.5. Sand on Mountains. View of suspected Eolian deposits on road to Turfan from Korla. |
| Figure 3.6. Sand on Mountains. Another view of suspected Eolian deposits on road to Turfan from Korla. |
| Figure 3.7. Sand on Mountains. Yet another view (last one!) of suspected Eolian deposits on road to Turfan from Korla. I think these are beautiful, so took a lot of pictures. |
Checked into Tarim hotel about 9PM. Really GREAT restaurant in back of lobby called the Lindin. Had crab, chicken with cashews and some vegetable like spinach. Really delicious. One highlight was a guy who specialized in filling tea cups from a great distance (up to 3 meters, he says) with a tea pot that has an extended spout (about .5 m in length). Pretty cute trick. I am told this is from Shanghai.
25 October (Friday).
Breakfast in hotel restaurant, then off to PBSX building for conference. Morning is spent in "workshop mode" with a parade of talks beginning with mine. Second was Dr. Fong who talked about active faults in eastern Tien Shan, along with rates of convergene (meters in 10,000s years). This is work done with Peter. Next is a talk on leveling, in which the presenter suggested significant variability in elevation change along strike. It peaks at 3 mm/yr at about 43.5, 84.6 and tapers off to 0.18 mm/yr to the east and west. North and south the change in elevation is small, with rates on the order of 0.1 mm/year. Fast area is the "Biyinggo" region. A number of horizontal networks have been established around active faults, and have been monitored for past 5-7 years. Motion on one is left lateral at 10 mm/year - smokin!
Note: for the most part these are "Soviet style" presentations. Graphics are poor and it is always very difficult to know where it is that people are talking about. I had to interrupt several times to get this information. Most maps have no lats and lons on them, and are crudely drawn.
Next talk was on MT. I got an abstract and a map for this one, although the map was retrieved as the data are classified. This talk was a bit humorous, as the guy gave an overview of where data has been collected and then stopped to ask, "any questions"? at which point I, never afraid to broach the obvious, said "Yes, what about the results?" which seemed to take the speaker by surprise. He then fumbled through a notebook and took out a transparency that showed a couple of cross sections through the Tien Shan and Tarim basin. Main points: Can't see very deep beneath Tarim (maybe 20 km max) I guess because of thick conductive overburden. Can see down to 660 beneath Tien Shan, including low R at 410 and 660 km depth. They also see some isolated pockets of low R under the TS as well as (surprise!) a low R lower crust in several places (though not everywhere). Again, this is all rather sketchy as the guy was very guarded. I am told that if our project gets off the ground we will have some access to this data.
By this time it's time for lunch so we head out to Jouza place. GREAT!
There is a guy at the Institute named "John" who speaks pretty good English. He apparently spent a year at U Kentucky, and is a big KFC fan (KFC has a branch franchise in Urumqi, which he frequents).
Urumqi Station
After lunch we took a tour of the CGSN station at Urumqi (figures 3.8-3.14). They now have an STS-2 in operation (since September of 1995), and the STS-1 is still running. There are a number of different sensors as well (short period, long period) though it seems redundant. A professional looking operation. Apparently this station (and all CGSN stations) are managed by a USGS guy named Blizzer (??) who lives now in Thailand and visits once a year (stays in Holiday Inn in Urumqi). Interesting tree here with seeds that are used for producing industrial oil (squeezed from seeds). Got a sample.
| Figure 3.8. Urumqi Station. View of complex in which the NCDSN broad band station resides. All the recording equipment is in the building, and the vault is behind. |
| Figure 3.9. Urumqi Station. GPS monument near the station (3.8 was taken from here). "John" is to the left. |
| Figure 3.10. Urumqi Station. View of a "Geomagnetic" observatory located near the seismic station. |
| Figure 3.11. Urumqi Station. Top of the GPS monument. The mark is beneath the hole in the middle, currently filled with a roll of paper. Model: Arthur Chen. |
| Figure 3.14. Urumqi Station. Strange tree located outside the observatory, with large "balls" containing nuts used as industrial lubricant. |
After the station visit we returned to the institute for our business conference. I started off by reviewing the proposed study - what we wanted to accomplish and in particular what we wanted to do in Xinjiang. This was followed by their presenting me with a trial "agreement" for us to read and edit. They emphasized that it was a "strawman". It's only in Chinese and we didn't have any time to discuss it so no modifications were made during our visit here. The head guy (Zhu) is in Beijing so they have limited authority anyway; we will meet him on the 27th-28th to talk turkey.
We then spent some time discussing seismic stations - the two we hadn't talked about before (Wuqia and Artush) and about the two new ones. See notes below on Wuqia and Artush - these are maintained by the Kashgar office and are not as high quality as the ones we visited.
Had Hot Pot (Guo goo) for dinner. Fun (you cook your food yourself on small pots of boiling water in front of you, and get you food in a buffet like arrangement) but not my favorite. I'm not that great a cook so don't find eating my own cooking that enjoyable.
Nice scene after dinner: we went to the main square in town and watched people taking their exercise in a variety of formats: ballroom dancing is popular among the older folk, the younger to something that looks like a cross between tai chi and aerobics; kind of a Chinese macarena. My favorite was a group of people standing in a circle perfectly still with their eyes closed and their hands up in the air. I was told they were "trying to feel their pulse in their whole body". This went on for quite a while.
| Figure 3.15. Urumqui by night. Chef in restaurant in "night market" preparing a meat dish. Kind of a "Uygur MacDonalds", if you will. |
26 October Saturday
Spent most of the day doing tourist stuff (figures 3.22-3.25). Visited the downtown park and did a lot of shopping at both the open market and the government shops. Shecshwan lunch. Tried to visit museum but it is closed on weekends except by prior appointment. Interesting souvenier items: knives of various sizes with very interesting handles. Some from Kashgar; lace-like table cloths; hats (tubetakeas); laquer spoons; jade items.
Dinner that night in Lin Din at the hotel. Packed for plane.
| Figure 3.22. Urumqi. Umumqi is located in a valley, and apparently was flooded a few centuries ago in a major way. The inhabitants believed that the flooding was due to an evil spirit who lived upstream, and built a couple of towers to keep him/her away. I guess it works! One of the earlies forms of disaster prevention I know about that still is in operation This picture is taken from one of the towers and shows the tower on the opposite hill. |
| Figure 3.23. Urumqi. Closeup of one of the evil-prevention towers. |
| Figure 3.24. Urumqi. The skyline. Looks like any major town anywhere in the world to me. |
| Figure 3.25. Urumqi. For some reason, several businesses were being started on this day, and the streets were filled with music from bands like the one to the right (a man with a horn and two boys on drums). Supposedly having these guys playing all day brings good luck to your business. The music itself was a kind of free-form jazz variety. |
Some notes on the institute: 20 vehicles, 2 trucks (figure 4.1), 5 4WD vehicles (like Mitsubishi Panjero); pretty nice vehicles actually.
| Figure 4.1. Outside the Tarim Hotel. This truck does not belong to PBSX, but apparently PBSX has "one exactly like it". |
27 October Sunday
Checked into airport; all bags go through security near the entrance to the checkin area. If you have something objectionable in any bag (like a knife, for example) they will require you to visit the "tape man" who will wrap tape around your bag for 60 Y - note that this includes checked baggage as well, so it's really a kind of rip off. Airport tax is 50 Y.
Lesson learned the hard way: there is a weight limit of 20 kg on checked baggage, and the cost for excess is 25 Y /kg for Chinese; 38 Y/kg for foreigners. Note that this does not apply to carry-on, in fact there does not seem to be any regulation for carry-on. So, pack all your stuff in your carry-on luggage, or have a Chinese companion pay your excess baggage fee for you.
Xu Yi met us in Beijing outside of baggage claim area, and we joined the long que for taxes. It seems there are MANY taxes that do business at the airport, but taxi traffic is strictly controled by having most of them wait in a "holding" lot and releasing them intermitently. Our driver had been waiting for several hours before being allowed to drive to the airport to pick us up.
There is a new, major highway between the airport and town, and it took about 45 minutes to get into the center of Beijing. We checked into the Academy of Sciences Guest house, a hotel for "experts", for whom the room rates are quite a bit less expensive (although they apparently have only single rooms). It's a reasonable place, though my room had a couple of cockroaches (I had many more on Beacon Hill, and paid a lot more to live there!).
Xu Yi went with us by minibus to see Tienamen square and the south gate to the Forbidden City (it was night by now so the attractions were closed). Got to see the Chairman lit up on his classic portrait. Impressive sight. Left for a quick meal and then did a quick tour of a "special economic zone" which looks like the shopping district of any large city: big department stores flanked by dozens of smaller shops and restaurants. From this angle Beijing looks about like any other big city on the planet.
28 October Monday
Breakfast in the CAS Guest House (note that foreigner price for breakfast is 10 x higher than it is for the locals). Xu Yi picked us up and we went to SSB for a meeting with Dr. Zhu (figure 4.5), the director of PBSX. Zhu is a tall, thin man and rather quiet. We went over the project and the meat of the discussion from the previous Friday, and also discussed the site conditions at a few of the remaining sites that we didn't get to visit. We also talked a bit about current funding and projects in China, and learned about Mr. Ma and all his equipment. I reiterated our position on field costs. Overall it went well, but as Xu Yi later told me: "Mr. Zhu is a theorist, not an administrator". Something of a relief.
| Figure 4.5. Outside SSB. From left to right: Arthur, Zhu, and Xu Yi in front of the entrance to SSB in Beijing. |
Nice lunch at a restaurant near the SSB, then we parted and headed over to the Geology Insitute (also part of SSB) to meet with Zhang Peizhung (figure 4.7). A brief exchange of words and then I gave my talk to the general populace (in English with NO translators!). Went well, I think. Several interesting questions.
Spoke to Dr. Liu about the refraction/reflection work planned for the eastern Tien Shan. I gather this is the project that Francis Wu and Wang Ping Chen are involved in. I gave him a copy of Jim Knapp's proposal and told him to get in touch with him.
Spent rest of afternoon talking with Zhang. Difficult to arrange other meetings as most people were out trying to work out the next 5 year budget. Did get an appointment with Chen Yuntai for following day. Learned something about plans for GPS in China - pretty ambitions. I told Zhang that I would ask Tom Herring to give him some advice on GPS receivers, as they are planning on purchasing several.
Dinner that night at nearby restaurant with Zhang and a geologist who has worked a lot in the Chinese Pamir. Nice guy. Talked a bit about western Tibet. Got to try "Er guo toe" (2 pot head) which is a strong Chinese rice wine similar to Saki. Nice night out and a lot of laughs. Xu Yi says "You like to say interesting words". That's his way of saying "joking around". He said that Clark Burchfiel also "like to say interesting words". So, I am in rare company, it seems.
| Figure 4.7. Zhang Peizhen. The Assistant Director standing in front of the SSB Institute of Geology. |
29 October Tuesday
No meetings scheduled for the morning so we planned to do a bit our tourism. Unfortunately our schedule got cramped by having to find a Bank of China to change money, and more than that on that would cash a traveler's check. The occupied a lot of time. Note that there are a lot of different banks in China, but only the Bank of China can do exchanges. This task occupied more than 1 hr 30 min.
Finally completing business, we headed out to the Summer Palace (figure 4.17) on the NW edge of town. It was nice weather, a bit brisk, and the Palace grounds were quite lovely. We did a quick tour and left; I would definitly like to go again when I have more time (HA!).
| Figure 4.17. Summer Palace Detail of a ceiling. |
| Figure 4.17b. Summer Palace Steve and Arthur loitering on bridge. Note palace in background. The hill on which this palace was built was made of the material excavated in the construction of the lake. Lot of dirt! |
Grabbed a quick egg pancake from a vendor and hopped in a minibus for the Forbidden City (figures 5.6, 5.12, and 5.13). This was quite spectacular, but again we didn't really have enough time to do it justice. Just a quick walk through with a few pauses to read the signs. Something else to promise myself to do in the future!
| Figure 5.6. Forbidden City. Details of roofs. Apparently the more tiny stauettes that appear on the roof, the more important the building. |
| Figure 5.12. Forbidden City. Detail of marble carving in a long stairway. |
| Figure 5.13. Forbidden City. One of the first clocks ever divised, this is a water clock in the "Clock Museum" (and one of the very few from China in this museum!) |
Headed across Tienamen square to the shops on the south side. There's a McDonald's on the opposite side with Ronald sitting on a bench waiting to have his picture taken with you. (Thus, there is Mao on one end of the square, Ronald on the other.).
| Figure 5.14. Tienamen Square. Steve and the McChairman. Photo by Arthur Chen. |
30 October Wednesday
Took a cab to the airport and checked in on Dragonair flight to Hong Kong. We were told there was a weight allowance but we were not charged even though we were a few kg over. (Zhang had given us some really BIG books that we carried as hand luggage). Airport tax is 90Y for international flights. I guess that exporting Yuan is illegal but noone made a fuss about changing money and there was no line at the bank to do so, so I guess it's no big deal.
Flew to Hong Kong and changed to the China Air (Taiwan) flight to Taipei. Arrived in the evening. Lots of scary looking customs signs in the airport, and you are reminded several times that drug trafficking is punishable by death. There is even a requirement to declare all computer storage items, but when I tried to do this the customs guy didn't want to hear about it and waved me on. Not sure about the reason for this law.
Lin met us at the airport and drove us to the Academia Sinica complex NW of Taipei, where the IES has new quarters. Very spiffy. The rooms at the guest house are nice and cost only about $25/day. Moreover, they are located a block from the IES building.
Arthur and I walked into the local concentration of shops and got at quick bite to eat, then called it a night.
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