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URUMQI, Might 30 (Xinhua) — Alimjan Dawut, from northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Area, has coated a distance seven occasions the size of the equator in 33 months, driving his sixth ute pickup.
Pointing on the odometer exhibiting 286,800 kilometers, the 34-year-old man working for an area transportation firm instructed Xinhua that he was principally shuttling between Kashgar Metropolis and the Tajik Autonomous County of Taxkorgan.
Taxkorgan, some 1,250 km from the regional capital Urumqi, borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. As soon as an impoverished county, it relied on a 300-km highway which extends westwards to Pakistan for shipments of provides.
“I longed for freedom, and I discovered that every little thing we used within the county got here from Kashgar, so I purchased a ute,” recalled the skinny man with a sun-tanned face. The locals fondly name him the “ute prince.” “On this method, I can have each freedom and cash.”
In 2008, when he was 19 and simply completed highschool, Alimjan Dawut began working in a clothes store. Two years later, he purchased his first ute, placing collectively the 50,000 yuan (about 7,060 U.S. {dollars}) he borrowed from his mother and father and family members, and the 20,000 yuan he earned by herding sheep after college.
He then realized that “freedom was on the value of hardship.” “The county was impoverished at the moment,” Dawut stated. “I carried onions, potatoes and womboks from Kashgar. Greens have been low cost and the transportation value was low, however our county was in need of every little thing. So I had orders day-after-day.”
He paid off all his loans inside three years, earlier than shopping for himself a brand new ute.
He purchased his third ute in 2015, when Taxkorgan launched into the quick monitor to shake off poverty.
Alimjan Dawut witnessed a surge of holiday makers to his residence county in these few years, lots of whom went there to take a position. In addition to, with the growing exchanges between China and Pakistan, the county noticed extra Pakistanis.
For residents within the county, “demand for onions, potatoes and womboks dropped, whereas that for inexperienced leafy greens and clothes elevated,” Dawut stated, including that he felt glad in regards to the change, as a result of it meant enchancment of the folks’s lives and diversification of their weight loss program.
Alimjan Dawut all the time remembers a catastrophe which occurred in 2017.
In Might that yr, a 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Taxkorgan County, the place eight fatalities have been confirmed and 23 folks have been injured. Over 1,500 homes collapsed or have been badly broken.
Alimjan Dawut was saddened to see his hometown devastated. After seven years of exhausting work he had already constructed up some financial institution financial savings. This enabled him to donate meals and water value of greater than 2,000 yuan, whereas he additionally volunteered to deliver provides to folks affected by the quake.TOWARDS PROSPERITY
In 2019, Taxkorgan declared its victory in ending poverty. The following yr noticed the highway linking the county to Kashgar upgraded and Alimjan Dawut wanted solely six hours, as a substitute of 10, to finish the 300-km journey.
The driving force purchased his sixth ute in 2020, a white mannequin of Changan Cars. Completely different from all his earlier pickups, the brand new ute was priced above 100,000 yuan. It’s broader and outfitted with a backup digital camera.
Now that Taxkorgan has its personal vegetable farming business, and with the brand new highway enabling extra vehicles to entry, Alimjan Dawut carries much less greens and clothes. As a substitute, he’s delivering extra workplace gear, equivalent to computer systems and printers, lots of that are utilized by development firms, because the county is present process a dramatic facelift.
His expertise epitomized Xinjiang’s growth prior to now decade. In accordance with the regional authorities, in 2021, Xinjiang’s GDP reached almost 1.6 trillion yuan, doubling the 2012 determine. The area has invested closely to enhance transportation. By August 2022, Xinjiang had greater than 7,500 km of expressways.
Alimjan Dawut’s transportation firm now has round 300 autos, together with 100 utes. In accordance with Wang Yun, deputy head of Taxkorgan’s transport bureau, the county is turning into more and more common as a vacationer vacation spot. Because the excessive season of tourism comes, about 1,000 passenger automobile drivers are on the highway per day, together with plenty of others transporting cargo.
The formidable man is now planning to purchase his seventh ute. “An computerized with sunroof,” he stated, beaming. “My hometown will grow to be an excellent higher place.”
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