Female truck driver witnesses decades of change in China's Xinjiang

Aerial photo shows a new highway traversing the Taklimakan Desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xiang)

HEFEI, March 7 (Xinhua) -- On the remote Ruoqiang section of a national highway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xie Lin transports 30 tonnes of goods on her 17-meter-long truck.

Most of the time, her only companion on the road is the endless Gobi Desert, with its rolling sand dunes and poplar trees.

"Although some drivers say it's hard, I feel very relaxed holding the steering wheel, looking at the desert and listening to music," she said.

Xie, a 54-year-old truck driver from east China's Anhui Province, works for a logistics company based in the province. Of some 1,300 truck drivers employed by the company, she is the only female.

"Many customers call me 'superwoman' when they see me driving long distance to deliver goods all by myself," she said.

Since 1995 when she joined the company, Xie has driven over five million kilometers. For most of the time, she was on the way either to or back from Xinjiang.

Her affection for trucks traces back to her childhood. When she was 10 years old, her father retired from the army and worked as a truck driver in the fleet of a cement factory in today's Suzhou City in Anhui.

"Back then, I would rush to the fleet after school and learned to repair vehicles with my father and his colleagues. Getting my hands dirty gave me the feeling of being a driver like them," she said.

On weekends, members of the fleet would take her to the surrounding cities to deliver cement.

In 1989, at the age of 20, she got her driver's license. In about 1995, she bought a second-hand truck and started working for the logistics company in Huaibei City, Anhui Province.

In 2003, Xie and her brother began to deliver goods from the Yangtze River Delta to Xinjiang. During one trip, they ran into unexpected trouble.

They were transporting washing machines and refrigerators from the coastal city of Ningbo to Xinjiang. When they arrived in northwest China's Gansu Province, the road was closed due to the construction of the Lianyungang-Horgos Expressway, linking the city of Lianyungang in east China's Jiangsu Province with the city of Horgos in Xinjiang.

Xie had to take a detour down a temporary track through the desert. However, as the road was uneven, the coupler joining the trailer and truck broke, and the goods fell to the ground.

"My brother stayed there to keep watch on the goods, while I drove about 80 kilometers to a repair site. It took me two days to get the truck repaired and come back," she recalled.

Since 2005, when her brother bought his own truck, she has had to drive alone. "At that time, in Xinjiang, I mostly took the national highways, although sometimes I had to take the desert roads and the small roads that were not even on the maps."

On Dec. 31, 2014, the Lianyungang-Horgos Expressway fully opened to traffic.

According to Xie, the roads in China have become wider and smoother in recent years, while the efficiency of transportation has improved a lot.

"It used to take nine days from Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, to Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang. But now, the same journey can be made in four days and four nights," she said.

The Ruoqiang section of No. 218 national highway, on which Xie often drives, is a testament to Xinjiang's road development. A brick highway that was put into use in 1971 remains. Next to it is the national highway, which opened to traffic in 2001, as well as an expressway and a railway, which were opened to traffic in recent years.

By September 2022, the total length of highways in Xinjiang had reached 217,300 km and the total length of expressways in the region exceeded 10,000 km, according to the regional transport department.

"In the past 20 years, the roads I took, the goods I transported and the scenery along the way have all changed," Xie said. In the beginning, most of the cargo she transported to Xinjiang consisted of small household appliances. However, since 2014, solar panels used for photovoltaic power generation have become more common.

"There are more and more photovoltaic power stations and wind power projects in Xinjiang," she said. "I have seen and felt Xinjiang's changes and social development."

Additionally, there have been improvements to the ecological environment, as evidenced by the emergence of wild animals. In recent years, Xie has often been pleasantly surprised by encounters with wild animals on her journeys.

"In southern Xinjiang, various animals, like the lynxes and Tibetan antelopes, are often spotted," she said, adding that the autonomous region has built animal passages along highways and railways, and has set up signboards to remind drivers to pay attention.

Xie has made many friends in Xinjiang. Some of them would drive dozens of kilometers to take her to their home when they heard of her arrival. "Xinjiang is my second home," she said.

In January, Xie was elected as a deputy to the Anhui provincial people's congress. To improve the working lives of truck drivers, she called for the building of more "driver's homes" at highway service zones, where drivers can sleep, take showers and do their laundries.

Xie plans to retire in two years.

"I once thought about changing a job, but I found I couldn't stay in a place," she said. "As I travel about, I see the beautiful sceneries of different seasons. I am a witness to the rapid changes of Xinjiang, and I make a lot of friends. I will cherish my time on the road."