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Shihezi, China, Asia |
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New town Shihezi is located 150 km on the west of Urumqi, along the northern foothills of the Tianshan mountains in the west of China. Some 50 years ago, there was little there but a vast stretch of desert. The new town was developed by the XinJiang Pioneer-Corps, a division of the Peoples Liberation Army, after the war for the production of food for the army in these remote areas. Shihezi was designed and built by the Chinese army in the fifties. Chinese militaries were sent to the desert to reclaim the land in the goby desert for this new city. The cry from the government was `Go West, young man, and Open the Wilderness.' Two and a half million soldier-settlers and dependants settled in Xinjiang between 1954 and 1982. The newly built Shihezi city is well planned with the main roads about 60 m wide lined with trees. Ten million trees were planted! The built up area is divided into the cultural and indstrial districts by a wind break tree plantation 157 m wide and 8 km long to protect the cultural and living district from industrial pollution. Shihezi is well known as a garden city and highly regarded for the care it devotes to the ecology. In 2000, it won the Dubai International Award for Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment.
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