The longtime primitive and unsettled life of about one million
herdsmen in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region come
to an end as they have moved into brand-new residential areas with
the aid of local governments.
"This marks a dramatic change of their traditional nomadic life
pattern, passing from one generation to another," said Hubetolla
Hasayin, director of the animal husbandry department of the
region.
For thousands of years, Xinjiang is a region where the northern
nomadic nationalities live and procreate.
The winter in Xinjiang usually lasts for about half a year with
frequent hitting of blizzards so herdsmen there were forced to
migrate from one place to another all the year round to search for
fodder and water for their livestock.
To sooth or end their difficult life, the regional government
has helped the herdsmen improve fodder with mixed ingredients and
gather the livestock to uniformly feed.
The government also has built new residential areas for herdsmen
to dwell in. According to local government statistics, 78 percent
of the 1.29 million herdsmen in Xinjiang have moved into new houses
to start a settle-down life at the end of 2004.
A 35-year-old Kazak herdsman named Jeanspeeke has recently moved
into a new brick house in the county of Burqin in Altay Prefecture.
The shabby adobe house where he lived in the past becomes a sheep
pen now.
The government equips solar or wind electric generator for
nearly every household of the herdsmen, Jeanspeeke said. He can
watch television every day and ride a motorcycle or take a car
instead of riding a horse, he said.
Taypark Quhaive, Kazak herdsman, said he sold some of his
livestock and built a brick house in Qinghe County of Altay
Prefecture. With the help of the local government, he has access to
tap water and power supply and his house was equipped with cable
television.
"The life was very difficult in the past," said the
65-year-oldKazak herdsman. "We used to live in yurt and wander with
30 sheep and two cows. The cold weather left me a serious lumbago,"
said the old man, recalling the hard life.
The resettled life is much easier, Taypark said. And their ways
of life have also changed. His two sons do not live on herding and
they have held jobs in the nearby Takshiken Port, he said.
According to a local official named Hubetolla, the resettled
life has made more than one million herdsmen discard the primitive
production mode. The official said the herdsmen now have their own
houses, livestock pens and a large stretch of fodder field. The
death rate of the livestock also has reduced from 8 percent in
the1970s to less than 1 percent today.
In addition, governments of all levels have built schools in the
herdsmen residential areas, ending the long history of "horseback
schooling."
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(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2005)