5．The Miracle of an Oasis

Grown from nothing but wilderness and rubble 60 years ago, Shihezi(石河子)with 38.2 percent of the city covered by green land is called“the best Chinese city to live in”by the United Nations Human Settlements Program-UN-Habitat(联合国人类住宅区计划署).

Visiting the city, you can see the wonders that the People's Liberation Army(中国人民解放军)had worked in the 1950s and 1960s, and soon backed by thousands of young men and women from all parts of the country. Working with simple tools which they made and living under the harsh conditions, they built more than ten new cities like Shihezi in the vast desert over decades, an oasis full of their wisdom and hard work known as the“Desert Pearl.”

Shihezi has its own universities, such as nationally-known Shihezi University, a comprehensive and national key university of“The 211 Project(211工程), ”Shihezi Vocational and Technical College, Shihezi Radio and TV University and Shihezi Engineering Technique School.

Huge flower-filled gardens and parks are good places for people to relax in, each with a man-made lake, monuments and white pigeons. A barren land only a few years ago, Shihezi is now an oasis with beautiful flowers and well-cared-for grass, trees, and bushes on the Silk Road—a great place to live in.