CHINA’S WILD WEST - Wildlife Conservation in China: Preserving the Habitat of China's Wild West - page 43

grasslands” were generally at elevations less than 3,600 meters and consisted primarily
of the desert shrubs Sympegma regelii (Goosefoot family) and Reaumauria soogorica
(Tamarix family), with very little grass. They functioned primarily as forage for domestic
camels.
The arid, relatively low-elevation “sandy slope shrub and grassland” formation was
dominated by Oxytropis aciphylla , Leymus paboanus , and Stipa glareosa , and was used
for sheep primarily in spring. “High, cold grasslands,” occurring mostly between 3,500
and 4,000 m, were dry to semi-moist alpine areas whose primary species were S. purpurea ,
Carex moorcroftii , and other grasses. At similar elevations were “high, cold meadows”
characterized by salty soils, some semi-marshy areas, and some sand dunes. Primary
species here were Carex spp. and the coarse grass Achnatherum splendens. The driest
of all alpine formations, at elevations of 4,000 to 4,500 m, was the “high, cold desert
grassland,” where primary species were Ceratoides compacta and Stipa glareosa. Finally,
in areas subirrigated from adjacent or draining rivers, were “riverside, sandy, sand-shrub
grasslands” dominated by Carex spp., Leymus paboanus , Stipa spp., and Kobresia spp.
(but these subirrigated areas were small and uncommon, comprising only about 2 percent
of Jianshe's usable grasslands).
Jianshe, at approximately 13,850 km 2 , has the largest area of Aksai County's four town-
ships, and like the rest of the county, was initially intended to serve as grazing grounds
for another group of Kazaks who had fled Xinjiang during the same time-period as those
who ultimately settled near Golmud. 71 Initially populated almost entirely by refugee
Kazaks pursuing subsistence pastoralism with their remnant sheep herds, Jianshe was
unusual in having been the destination for a number of Han economic migrants (mostly
from Wuwei in the Gansu corridor) beginning in about 1962. These immigrants took up
subsistence (and later, commercial) livestock production, lived a nomadic existence just
as the Kazaks did, and some even learned to speak Kazak. After dissolution of the com-
munes in 1983, occasional Han immigration continued (often via connections of friends
or family who had previously obtained livestock herds and taken up pastoralism 72 ), so
that by the time of the 1992 census, Han outnumbered Kazaks not only in Aksai County
as a whole (which included the county town and thus logically attracted Han with com-
mercial, technical, or bureaucratic skills), but also within entirely pastoral Jianshe Town-
ship. At the same time, limited emigration of Kazaks was permitted to newly independent
Kazakhstan (which welcomed the Kazak diaspora), further tilting the ethnic balance of
Jianshe toward Han.
By 1997, only 16 out of approximately 100 livestock herds were owned by Kazak
families, and of those, only 9 were managed daily by Kazaks. The majority of herd owners
lived full time in Aksai's county town, 73 some 200-300 kilometers by road (depending
on grazing season) from their herds. Almost all daily management was conducted by
short-term contracted herders, most often Han or Hui agriculturalists from further east
in Gansu or Qinghai. Most herders were young and inexperienced in livestock matters.
Herd owners typically remained with their herds and provided technical assistance to their
employees only during the spring lambing period and when commercial traders (most
from Xinjiang) arrived in autumn to purchase animals. In addition to salary, most herd-