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High in the Pamir Mountains in China’s north-west, Dr Aat Vervoorn’s car pulls to the side of the road. It’s late October. There is no car-width shoulder here, for the road remains where it has been for more than 2000 years — squeezed between river boulders and sheer mountain walls. The car remains half on the road as the driver takes a break.
You can tell a lot about a country from the road, if you know how. For Dr Vervoorn, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Asian Studies, the engineering of the cambered bitumen pathway is far less exciting than its existence.
Far behind, the ancient city of Kashgar is more construction site than completed building — old mud brick homes making way for new multistorey office complexes, schools and homes. Ahead lies Tashkorgan, the last town before the long-established trading route forks out of the country — a left taking you to Pakistan and a right to Afghanistan.
In between the two towns, the Karakorum Highway has a very modern surface.
Building site
“You hear people say that all of China is a building site, and that is a bit misleading, but it is more or less true of the north western region,” Dr Vervoorn says.
“Kashgar has new homes and department stores, there is development everywhere and the city is now linked by a new railway to the provincial capital Urumchi, 1500 kilometres to the east. Some say that all the romance of the region is disappearing, that it is a shame that they are knocking down ancient mud houses and replacing them with modern constructions — but I don’t think many of those who have to live through the intense heat and intense cold in the area would agree.
“You leave behind the cranes and concrete mixers of Kashgar and drive along a pristine stretch of bitumen to Tashkorgan. This is part of the old Silk Road, which has been travelled by traders for thousands of years, but now it is a beautiful new road — despite carrying less traffic than many other roads in China.
“You have to ask were is all the money coming from to build schools, houses, roads and infrastructure and why?
“We get so carried away with the idea of globalisation that it is easy to forget how crucial internal integration is for a country like China. The fact is, the north-western region is of enormous strategic and economic importance, inhabited by a range of ethic groups, close to the border of potentially unstable countries and containing some of China’s largest oilfields.
“Development in the north-western provinces has lagged far behind that of the coastal provinces. The government is keen to ensure the economic and political unity of the country and keep the many ethnic minorities in the area onside. Generating enough work is an important part of their strategy.
“Further to the south-east I travelled about 300 miles from Xining to a town called Langmusi. They had decided to upgrade the road to a new highway, but instead of constructing it piece by piece, virtually the whole length of the route was being built, all at once.
“These sort of construction jobs are currently soaking up much of the excess labour in China, and the face of the nation will change considerably if construction slows.
“Meanwhile, in addition to the Kashgar railway, they are hard at work on the controversial railway from Golmud in Qinghai to Lhasa. Sure, it’s important for the local economy, but why else was it built? Like many other infrastructure projects in China, it tells a lot about the area’s strategic importance.
“There is an increasing recognition not just in academia, but also in government and business, that you need to combine insights into local economies, local culture and local language to get a clear view of any situation. Answers to some of Asia’s big questions require the combination of many types of expertise.”
Portal to Asia
The 2004 Quality Review of ANU found that ANU was uniquely positioned to become a portal to Asia for the academic world.
The Committee found that: “Without the best academic leaders working at the forefronts of expanding knowledge, the relative geographic isolation would pose an almost insurmountable barrier for the Australian university community to participate and contribute to the most important intellectual and cultural advances to be made in the 21st century.
“By extension, the existence of ANU potentially benefits the entire system of higher education in Australia, with important cultural, economic, and technological spin-offs for the societies and industries of the greater Asia-Pacific Region.”
Dr Vervoorn said China was being forced to face a new set of challenges as its economy metamorphosed.
"It is too simplistic to paint China as an environmental vandal"
Dr Vervoorn
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The environment, often portrayed as the casualty of China’s progress, is receiving increased attention, with new national parks and nature reserves being established across the nation. The heavy promotion of these reserves is leading to a new set of environmental pressures, however, as international tourists stream in.
“At Songpan in northern Sichuan, much of the old town had to be excavated to improve the sewerage system, because of the influx of tourists flooding in to see the nearby Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong National Parks. In peak season, Jiuzhaigou is attracting 20,000 visitors per day — mostly from wealthy nearby Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea.”
The park, in its own way, is like China — millions visit, but large areas remain a secret to most.
“Strangely, as most visitors come on package holidays, you only have to move beyond the two roads travelled by the special tourist buses and the park is tranquil and deserted,” Dr Vervoorn said.
“It is too simplistic to paint China as an environmental vandal. Between Urumchi and Tiu I saw a very large wind farm — it is clear that they are looking to develop a range of options for energy and new ways to preserve their natural environment.”
Dr Vervoorn’s insights provide just a taste of Asian expertise at ANU, where more than 250 researchers are devoted to expanding knowledge about the Asia-Pacific region. The University was established with a responsibility to become Australia’s centre for research into the region — and in achieving that, the 2004 Review found that the University has become an important resource for the world.
“On several important measures of research quality ANU is the Australian leader — in membership of learned academies, percentage of staff with higher degrees, funded Fellowships, ARC Discovery grants per staff, and research expenditure per staff.”
Dr Vervoorn came back from China with new insights to feed into his courses, which examine ways to tackle some of the major problems facing Asia today.
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