page_title: Turpan Depression
section_title: Vegetation and agriculture
hierarchical_section_title: Turpan Depression / Vegetation and agriculture
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Urumqi (Wu-lu-mu-ch'i) area, Xinjiang, China
context_page_description: The Turpan Depression, or Turfan Depression, is a fault-bounded trough located around and south of the city-oasis of Turpan, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in far western China, about 150 kilometres southeast of the regional capital Ürümqi. It includes Lake Ayding, −154 metres, the second or third lowest depression on Earth.
  By some measures, it is also the hottest and driest area in China during the summer.
context_section_description: On the shores of Aydingkol Lake, reeds, tamarisks, saxauls, as well as other shrubs and weeds can be found. Away from sources of water, the Turpan Basin is not covered by vegetation. Consequently, agriculture is limited to oasis and depends on a sophisticated irrigation system known as the Karez System. The irrigation water comes from the surrounding mountain ranges, in particular from the annual melting of the snow. The Karez System consists of wells, underground channels, ground canals, and small reservoirs, which use the natural slope of the terrain to sustain the water flow and guide the water right to the plants while minimizing evaporation all along the way. The historical record of the system extends back to the Han Dynasty. The number of Karez systems in the area is slightly below one thousand and the total length of the canals is about 5,000 km (3,100 mi) in length. The Karez System is therefore considered as one of the three great ancient projects in China along with the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. Recently, development of groundwater through tubewells has led to a general fall in water tables, and many karez systems have failed. Farming in the Turpan Basin is particularly famous for its fruit. Because of the dry and hot conditions, the fruits grown in the depression have very high concentrations of sugar. They are traditionally processed by drying in open drying barns. The cultivated fruit include: mulberry, peach, apricot, apple, pomegranate, pear, fig, walnut, as well as grapes, watermelons and muskmelons. Among the fruit, the grapes stand out: more than 100 varieties of grape are cultivated in the area and it accounts for 90% of China's seedless grape crop. Other specialty agricultural products of the region are Donghu Hami melons and long-staple cotton.
caption: Map including the Turfan Depression (labeled as T'U-LU-FAN P'EN-TI) (1975)
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "9454", "Image ImageLength": "10344", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "i2s Digibook Scanner", "Image Model": "Suprascan A0 10000 RGB", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "400", "Image YResolution": "400", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:18 12:33:46", "Image ExifOffset": "324", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "462", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4762", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4727", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5172"}