A green city built from black gold 
cctv.com 10-09-2005 15:46
Energy resources, and fossil fuels in particular are among the most widely-discussed topics in modern society. For most of us, the closest we actually come to that world is putting gasoline in our cars and paying winter heating bills. But for citizens in northwest China鈥檚 Karamay, oil is a dream, a livelihood, and their city鈥檚 reason for being. Some 80% of its GDP is dependent on the oil industry, and as many as 1 out of every 3 of its people have been directly employed by an oil field. But while 鈥渙il field,鈥 to my mind at least, hardly conjures up an ideal living environment, the town of Karamay has created a quality of life for its citizens that is cleaner and greener than in most any place you could find.
Karamay has made this huge progress in a span of less than 50 years. It was officially created in 1958 with the express goal of developing industries related to or even dependent upon oil production. Oil has, in turn, been kind to them. The city now has one of the highest per capita incomes in the entire country: higher, even, than Shanghai!
Some of the new regulations he mentioned to me were things like stricter absence and leave policies. Punctuality also started to be more strictly enforced. Tursun also told me that, as a leader, one of his roles was as a kind of informal counselor for his colleagues. Due to the stresses of the job, arguments or pressures back home affect the workers from time to time, but these must not compromise their ability to focus and work safely. Watching him interact with his subordinates was touching, in a way, because it was clear that they respected and admired him, but saw him as a trusted friend as well.
Like work places around the world, the lunch break here is standard. But in order to keep up the level of oil production and give everyone a chance to eat on time, things move pretty quickly. Unlike workplaces in the city, there aren鈥檛 any restaurants nearby, so the oil field employs cooks who prepare food according to people鈥檚 requests and then deliver it to the worksite. Working, eating, and sharing living quarters with the same colleagues day after day must make the oil field into a true 鈥渉ome away from home.鈥
The name 鈥淜aramay鈥 comes from Uighur and means, literally, 鈥渂lack oil.鈥 The town itself is named after this hill, which was formed by the combination of sand on the surface and oil bubbling up from the earth. Perhaps the most legendary man ever to live in Karamay was Salimu, as he is credited by some for nothing less than the very discovery of oil here. How much of it is myth and how much of is fact? Well, we found one of the original pioneers here to set the record straight.
While Salimu鈥檚 story has a certain mythical appeal to it, the story of most of this city鈥檚 true founders 鈥 the early oil workers 鈥 is as true as it is amazing. Looking at the city鈥檚 modern incarnation, it鈥檚 hard to imagine what how far it has come.
Many of the people who made up that first group of oil workers to come to Karamay in the 鈥50鈥檚 also retired here, and live here now. I set up an interview with one of them, Mr. Chen, to ask him for his firsthand account of what life was like then.
When I arrived at his apartment building early one morning, he was still in the middle of his morning exercises with some of the people at his apartment complex. Many of them are now into their 70鈥檚, and to have worked under such extreme conditions in their youth, it amazed me how flexible and active they are today.
The Shixi makeover represents more than just superficial changes in the land where the oil fields are built. Today鈥檚 highly skilled oil workers are valuable industry commodities, and the companies want to retain as many of them as possible. One way this has been achieved has been through improvements in their overall quality of life. Not only does this make for happier workers, it makes for more efficient and productive workers, too.
A day鈥檚 work for people like Mr. Gui doesn鈥檛 include a lot of moving around. As a systems maintenance engineer, most of his movements are clicking a mouse or maybe making a phone call. So fitness centers like this one really come in handy鈥nd they鈥檙e VERY popular. Mr. Gui said that in the evenings, a thirty minute wait for a ping pong table is not uncommon!
Managing an oil field is a highly skilled job, and many of the workers here use their time off keep up on the latest industry and technological developments. But they are people, too: soccer magazines are a big hit, as are novels ranging from kung-fu fiction to classics like 鈥淒ream of Red Mansions.鈥
Because oil fields have to be in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it is inevitable that some people have to work holidays. But for the major holidays, the oil field arranges parties and social gatherings in these places to help ease some of the homesickness and help workers enjoy themselves as much as possible. The demands on these workers are undeniably high, but so, too, seem to be the perks.
Karamay has plenty of ways to relax, including one of my favorite pastimes, shopping. I passed on the national chain stores and headed for 鍥借锤锛寃here I was advised that the most local character was evident. I was not disappointed! Walking through this market, perhaps more than anywhere else around Karamay, I really got the sense of this city as a crossroads for so many different cultures. A lot of the products weren鈥檛 just made in another country; in many cases, they actually preserved the flavor and eccentricities of their countries of origin. In one shop, hundreds of images of eyes stared at me from all four walls. As it turns out, they were variations on some of the prominent imagery that the Kazakh minority uses to decorate their homes. As I expected, there were also a lot of accessories and decorations popular among Muslims in the city. One store sold wall hangings, imported from Saudi Arabia, with poetry from the Koran in gold embroidery. Most stores had at least one sewing machine, and if the customers were drawn to certain piece of fabric, the vendor could whip it up into curtains, a skirt, or a tablecloth right before the customer鈥檚 eyes. Perhaps what shocked me most were items I saw in this stall: now, I鈥檝e been to the biggest markets in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, but between you and me, this market in the middle of Karamay was the first place in China that I鈥檝e been able to find deodorant for sale! Imported from Mongolia, it sat in the same small shop next to vases carved in Pakistan, perfumes from Iran, and placemats from Russia!
To tell the truth, I鈥檝e never even held a real golf club, and I never imagined my first time hitting a golf ball would be in the Gobi Desert. But obviously, this doesn鈥檛 really count as the desert anymore. I spent most of my time on the practice range, but even out on the course itself, there was not much difference between what I saw here and what I鈥檝e seen on courses around the world.
Karamay seems determined to lay the strongest possible foundation for future development, as its early successes with oil have given it the capital and the confidence to expand into ever wider-reaching areas. Inasmuch as the lack of water was holding them back, at present, these needs seem to have been met and even surpassed.
Karamay Oilfield was the first to be discovered in New China. In spite of the difficult conditions, hardworking pioneers made great efforts to build Karamay into a modern city. And because of its abundant oil reserves, the city has experienced strong economic momentum over the past two decades. Karamay is now a petro-chemical production center which combines oil exploration, oil refining, scientific research and design, machinery repair and production, communications, transportation and power generation.
Editor:Wang Ping Source:CCTV.com
