Speaking of which, Xijiang is a good place, and almost every city here has its own characteristics.

For example, the provincial capital of Ulu. Muqi, which is rich in mineral resources such as oil and coal; There are cantaloupe in the Hami area; There are grapes in Turpan; Hetian Yuyu; Shache has almonds; Korla has fragrant pears; Karamay has Gobi jade and so on.

These things, as long as they work well, are enough to make a city soar into the sky.

Ulu. Needless to say, Muqi's oil and coal mines are like a rich kid who can get money as long as he sits at home.

However, places like Hami or Turpan require the rulers to work hard and diligently. Although these places have long been well-known, the supporting facilities are far from keeping up. For example, more and more people are growing cantaloupe, which causes the price of cantaloupe to become low, and sometimes it will cause unsalable. Although the local government has tried to sell cantaloupe in cooperation with other cities, it is far from enough.

Could it be that cantaloupe can only be eaten as a fresh fruit?

No way.

Like grapefruit peel, winter melon, and sour dates can be made into candied fruit, why cantaloupe? Not only can it be made into preserves, but also into fillings. Cantaloupe has a natural sweetness and should be good as a filling. With cantaloupe filling, you can take it as a heart, and make pies and other things with the unique flavor of the Hami region and sell them all over the country. This alone is enough for Hami to develop an industrial chain. What's more, Hami doesn't just have cantaloupe.

By analogy, other cities can also rely on local resources to develop something with local characteristics.

It's just that most of the officials in the government are people who are eager for public and immediate benefits, and it seems that the development of these is not enough to reveal their means. Unable to accumulate the merits of being promoted to an official position and making a fortune, they will only demolish houses and fill in the land to build houses, which will make the people's resentment boil.

People are persecuted by the local government, and they will not only complain about the local government, they will complain about the country.

The central government's policies are good, but when they go to the localities, they are often disfigured beyond recognition by the local government.

For example, the shantytown renovation introduced by the central government has good intentions, showing mercy to those who cannot afford to build houses and live in tiled houses, and let them live in upstairs. But when you get to the place, it's different. They got the shantytown renovation policy later. They began to prohibit people from building houses, and then demolished their houses and forced them to move into buildings.

Why can't a piece of land be planned for the people to build themselves? Why do people have to live in low-rise buildings?

Who doesn't have much money now, if they build it themselves. It's no problem to build two or three layers. And it's a high-ceilinged room. Instead of cramming into dozens of low-rise patty houses of more than two meters.

But the local government just won't let you build it, and it will be demolished as soon as it is built, and at the end it will say that you are building illegally. Makes you vomit blood in anger. This is where public resentment arises.

Yes! He can't let you build a house, or who will buy the house built by the real estate company? He can't plan the land for you, because he has to sell it for money. This phenomenon can be said to be the collusion between officials and real estate companies to loot the people's fat and ointment. In the old days, this was to kill the head and rob the family and exterminate the family. It's just that until now, no matter how excessive, I have never heard of an official being shot for one kind of problem or another.

The reason why there are so many contradictions in the current society is, in fact, all the inactions of the rulers, not the treachery of the small people.

So, there is nothing bad about this country, only inaction in power.

A place is poor for a while, so to speak, the problem of this place; If it is poor, it is a matter of the rulers.

Xijiang is indeed a good place, not only with world-famous melons and fruits, but also world-famous jade. The jade in Western Xinjiang is not only Hetian jade, but also a very special jade called Gobi jade.

Almost 280 kilometers away from the provincial capital of Western Xinjiang, there is a city called Karamay. About 100 kilometers northwest of Karamay, there is a very strange place. Strong winds are raging here all year round, and the maximum time is above 10 to 12. The strong wind blows the stones here strangely, so everyone calls this place the Devil's City, also known as Wuerhe Wind City. The local Mongols call this city "Surum Hak". The Uygur people call it "Shayi Tantarsi".

The length and width of the Devil's City are about 5 kilometers long, and the area is about 10 square kilometers.

According to the investigation, in the Cretaceous period more than 100 million years ago, here is a huge freshwater lake, the shore of the lake grows luxuriant plants, the water inhabited and bred Wuerhe stegosaurus, plesiosaurus, dinosaurs, Junggar pterosaurs and other ancient animals, like a "paradise" where the aquarium gathers, and then after two major crustal changes, the lake has become a land Hanhai sandwiched between sandstone and mudslate, and it is called the "Gobi Plateau" in geology.

The undulating Gobi Desert in Devil's Town is covered with blood-red, blue, white, orange-yellow and other stones left behind by the raging winds. They are like witches' pearls, adding a touch of mystery to the Gobi Desert.

Some people call this stone Wuerhe colored stone, and some people call it Gobi jade.

This kind of thing is not valuable, and the locals used to use it to repair roads, and a shovel cost tens of yuan a cubic meter. However, in the jade market of second- and third-tier cities, if you want to buy a good 300-500 gram specimen or play with it, it will cost 50-100 yuan.

This continued until 2003, when its price soared several times as if overnight.

Driven by interests, people from all over the country have come here to pick jade. It is said that at the peak, there was a spectacular sight of 100,000 people collecting jade on the Gobi Desert. There are many people picking jade, and the Gobi jade on the Gobi Desert will naturally gradually decrease. Rare things are expensive, and the price of Gobi jade has naturally risen slowly.

Gobi jade is divided into several types, and the highest grade is the golden silk jade with the light of precious stones.

Before 2003, the price of this jade was only about 10 yuan, but now, 1 gram can be sold for 10,000 yuan. Even the most common varieties of golden silk jade used to cost 500 yuan per gram, but in 2003, the price of 1 gram was only 1 yuan.

Because the price of Gobi jade has risen, the herdsmen near the "Devil's Town" in Karamay have begun to pick up stones to make a fortune, just like the people in Hotan. Now, "picking up stones" has become an important industry in the local area.

The local government is also a thief, and seeing this situation, it has set aside a large area of land on the Gobi Desert as a park, selling tickets for tourists to go in and pick up stones.

Something like this that can both let people play and increase their own taxes has to be said to be a good decision.

Not only that, the local government also named Karamay as "China's Golden Silk and Jade City", and even contacted Yangcheng, Shencheng, Yang. Jade carving masters and jade carving factories in Zhou, Fujian Province and other places carry out artistic creations on gold silk jade, so that the high-end variety of gold silk jade, which emits gemstone light, has become a luxury item in international jewelry.

I have to say that the heads of local government officials are pointy. It is convincing that the originally useless stones on the Gobi Desert can be operated to such an extent. Only those who are in power like this can be called a person who can make a difference.

In fact, these jade, which are called gem light by the people of Western Xinjiang, are not jade, but some quartzite or crystal pebbles, which are unique products of Gobi wind erosion.

This kind of Gobi pebble has a round shape, a large volume, smooth stone skin, a jade texture, and a strong ornamentality, but it is not a real jade. Although it is also a good handicraft processing material, there is no shortage of fine products. However, quartzite has high brittleness, high hardness, strong light transmittance, and lacks the dignified, mellow and warm feeling of jade.

It can be said that Gobi pebbles and other rock crystals are the same quartz silica components, which are worse than crystal in terms of transparency and purity, worse than agate, and worse than agate.

Anyone who has played jade knows that jade is more and more beautiful, and jade will grow with you for a lifetime. That is, it is commonly known as "people raise jade, and jade raises people." ”

But as soon as Gobi Pebble is born, you know what he looks like when he is old. That's the difference between the two!

Archibeg also contracted a river beach on the edge of the Yulong Kashgar River to look for jade, and went to see it when he drove by. The jade worker showed him some of the jade he had found, and the bits and pieces were all small materials, but it was rare that there were two pieces of seed material, weighing almost twenty grams. With the commission of these two pieces of seeds, the money obtained by the jade workers is almost the sum of the monthly wages of white-collar workers wandering in the bustling city. It's no wonder that so many people are crazy about finding jade.

Archibiger took a look, took a few pieces of good material, and continued on his way. (To be continued......)