So hot right now…In China, a glacier melts
April 8, 2007 | Category: China
Pictures from a just-completed two week jaunt in Xinjiang, where I was working on a story about a melting glacier—the No. 1 Glacier (一号冰川), so called because it was the first to be studied in China. Like all glaciers, it’s in the process of melting. I’ve written a missive about the trip for the journalism school’s Covering Asia website here with a full story to come later. As visible in the photos, we managed to do a little skiing—with Chinese characteristics—along the way.
My reporting partner Zach Slobig (black jacket) hikes to the glacier with Leilei, his translator (green), and Li Ning, one of the five winter workers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ glacier station. The glacier, divided by the ridge, used to be connected at the bottom. It broke into two branches in the early 1990s.
After much cursing of cigarettes, Zach arrives wheezing at the foot of the glacier (12,500 feet) and pauses to interview the young Li about his prospects for finding a woman at the glacier station (Li’s answer: Slim to none).
The holy triumvirate of glacier station life: beer, hot water and Wellies. Li Ning and his cohorts use the boots on their weekly treks up the glacier face to collect snow samples.
Zach tests his radio equipment during a stop next a cement factory down the canyon from the glacier. The factory feeds off the limestone in the canyon and, environmental rules to the contrary, spews vast quantities of unfiltered carbon dioxide into the air. That ribbon running past Zach is the Urumqi River, source of at least 30 percent of the provincial capital’s drinking water.
Us with the glacier station’s winter staff. Not pictured: Mimi the cat and two German shepherds, Dog #1 and Dog #2.
Ma Ming, a wildlife biologist at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geology in Urumqi, displays a necklace of Snow Leopard claws. The leopards have been killing domesticated sheep because the rising snow lines have reduced the population of natural prey. Shepherds trap and kill them to protect their herds. With only about 300 left in China, snow leopards are considered Class A Engdangered Animals. According to Ma, the claws go for a buck a piece.
A butcher gets fierce on a side of mutton across the street from our hotel in Urumqi.
No idea who this kid is. We just liked his hair.
Urumqi, the provincial capital, from the 15th floor of the Li Hua Hotel.
Billboard for a Chinese ski equipment company near the parking lot of the Silk Road International Ski Resort, Xinjiang’s largest (see next photo).
Mid-way down Silk Road’s lone run, a 1-km patch of man-made slush, trying out our recently purchased shotgun mic. We arrived on the day of the winter season, as the staff were busy stuffing rental equipment into canvas bags for storage over the summer. Number of people on skiing that day besides us: 0. Snow was crap, but I did earn the distinction of “First ever telemarker to ski the Silk Road International Ski Resort.” No certificate, alas.
Zach tries to convince the boys in the lift-house to fire up the lift so we can take one more run. All claimed they didn’t know how to operate it. We ended up taking a snow mobile instead, which ran out of gas halfway up.
Part of a group of about a dozen Russians we found picnicking at the base lodge. The girl, Luba, said she was studying Chinese in Urumqi. The man drinking the beer has commandeered Zach’s glacier goggles.
Luba’s boyfriend’s father—referred to by the rest of the group as the “Imperatur”—returns victorious after a pony ride in the mountains.
The source of the group’s mirth—a case of generic vodka, bought on the fly in Urumqi.
On the road to a second ski resort, yet to be built. The new resort, funded with American money, will supposedly be Asia’s largest. Last day in Xinjiang, first snow we saw.
David and Beck Hazi, Kazakh sheep herders cum ski instructors we found at the bottom of the proposed resort site. “What’s your Chinese name?” I asked. “My Chinese name is David,” David replied.
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About the Author
Josh Chin is a freelance journalist based in Beijing. He also once worked as a sous chef in a French restaurant in San Francisco. Neither job has been good for his health.Latest from Twitter...
In spirit of Guardian I.E.D. timeline, fascinating Japanese artist rendition of all nuclear blasts from 1945-1998. http://bit.ly/9F9s55 8 hrs agoPhotos
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Wonderful! Loved the Alta hoodie–brought back some fond memories of this winter. Way to rip it up internationally.
Thanks, Becca. Had to represent the home hill. A bit hard to rip when you’re on a 20-degree slope slathered in man-made snow (embarrassing pictures not posted show me trying to affect the ripper tele stance, to no avail), but I’m certain there are some fine back-country turns to be had. I’m so certain, in fact, that I left my boards in Beijing so I’ll have them next winter. Start planning now…
[...] the Ch-infamous.com Shameless Self-Promotion Department, a new article on China Dialogue (based on the trip Zachary Slobig and I took to Xinjiang last year, co-written by myself and Mr. Slobig): On a hazy afternoon in the city of Urumqi, [...]