The Impression of Garden City, Kansas —— The 6th Day of the Graduation Travel
记得在大四的寒假的时候，一边埋头苦干作品集和申请学校的我终于找到了一丝丝喘息的机会，便跟随我的好朋友从山西太原自驾到新疆自驾旅游，一路上风尘仆仆，外面是一望无际的大戈壁。天下第一雄关之后一路往西，虽然是一马平川，但是风景却是一片荒漠，一些地方孤零零的只剩下太阳能板和风力发电机。我很是好奇，美国的中部西部地区会不会也有这样的景象，会不会类似？美国的地理环境毕竟相对来说有点不一样，于是在看地图的过程中，却被整个整个中部大平原上的大量灌溉农田吸引，而其中一大片甚至已经似乎没有足够的地下灌溉用水而荒废，而这一大片农田附近的城市，就是堪萨斯的Garden City。
I remember during the winter vacation of my last year of college, my best friend and I drove from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province to Xinjiang on a road trip, dusty road, outside the vast expanse of the Gobi. All the way west after the first majestic pass in the world, the landscape was a desert, although it was flat, with only solar panels and wind turbines left alone in some places. I was curious to see if the central western part of the United States would have such a scene, would it be similar? The geography of the United States is relatively a bit different, so in the process of looking at the map, but was attracted by the whole of the entire central Great Plains on a large amount of irrigated farmland, and a large part of it even seems to have not had enough water for underground irrigation and deserted, and this large area of farmland near the city, which is Garden City, Kansas.
一、城市印象
The Impression of the City
整个garden city 在这个区域，有点不同寻常的绿，看起来不是自然的，而是人工染上去。万绿丛中闪亮着高光的农田，甚至已经产生了荒漠化的现象。
The whole garden city in this area is a bit of an unusual green that doesn't look natural, but artificially colored. The farmland that shines high amongst all the green has even developed desertification.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/us/high-plains-aquifer-dwindles-hurting-farmers.html
发现这个地方之后开始找该地的新闻，顺腾摸瓜地找到了这里的土地耕作矛盾。地下水被多年的开采之后，逐渐枯竭，农田无法再使用地下水灌溉了。
When I found this place, I started to look for news about it, and I found out about the contradiction of the land cultivation here. After years of exploitation, the groundwater has been depleted, and the farmland can no longer be irrigated with groundwater.
Garden City 所处在的位置，正是上面这个图的中心，连续多个世纪以来，因为大量的农业灌溉活动，这里地下水都下降非常厉害。
Garden City is located in the center of the map above, where the groundwater has been declining very rapidly for centuries due to heavy agricultural irrigation.
而地下水的补给，远远没有开采来得快，需要灌溉的农田，一直在源源不断的开采地下水种植，直到现在已经远远没有四五十年前的水量了。大家都疯狂抽水，然后就大家都没有水。具体各位可以看看这篇论文。
Groundwater is not recharged as fast as it is mined, and the farmland that needs to be irrigated is constantly being mined for groundwater to grow it, until now there is nowhere near the amount of water that there was 40 or 50 years ago. Everyone pumped a lot of underground water and then there was no water for everyone. You can check out this paper for more specifics folks.
二、游览城市与其历史
Walking Around The City And The History
城市给人感觉并不大，但是也算是附近的一个大城市了，一路上都是一些矮小的建筑， 放眼望去也没有什么高层，外围的公路似乎构成了城市的环城高速，需要跑比较远的地方官就会优先往外边的环跑，因为没有红绿灯和stop sign。
The city doesn't feel very big, but it's also a big city in the neighborhood. There are some small buildings along the way, and there are no high-rise buildings as far as the eye can see. The outer highway seems to constitute the city's ring highway, and officials who need to run farther away from the city will give priority to the outer ring because there are no traffic lights or stop signs.
街道很宽，起码随便都有30米，所以大概率就注定了宽街无闹市。反正中部大平原地广人稀，摊大饼就行，也没有必要提高城市密度。路上的水塔，想想恐怕大部分城市供水，都是要从地下水抽取，如果没有ogallala aquifer提供的充足地下水资源，这里恐怕未必能够孕育成城市。
The streets are very wide, at least 100 feet, so that means there might not be too many people walking on the street with a lot of commercial activities. Anyway, the central plains are sparsely populated, so there is no need to increase the density of the city. The water tower on the road, think about it, I think that perhaps most of the city's water supply, is to be extracted from the groundwater, if there is no Ogallala aquifer to provide sufficient groundwater resources, I'm afraid that this place may not be able to spawn into the city.
在这个城市参观一圈，基本上都是中部大平原的城市特色，中间的很多地方停车都是随便停，基本上所有街区和道路的设计，都大部分规划成两侧停车，因为城市本来就很小，也没有什么交通，但是却可以每个路口都放红绿灯。然后这些红绿灯也不智能，反正就是各管各的，在上面开车你运气不好的话可以一直红灯红下去，各个路口都给你红的，因为这些交通灯没有联动以提高效率，而且也没有必要，反正也没有多少车辆，这些基础设施已经很老了，城市可能也没有钱更新，总之就是能用就用。
After a tour of the city, basically, the central Great Plains of the city characteristics. All the neighborhoods and the design of the road, are most of the planning into the two sides of the parking, because the city is originally very small, there is no traffic but can be put at every intersection traffic lights. And then these traffic lights aren't smart either, they are working on their individual, and if you're unlucky enough to drive on them you can just keep the light red and red, and all intersections give you red, because these traffic lights aren't linked for efficiency, and there's no need for it, and there aren't a lot of vehicles anyway, and the infrastructure is old and the city probably doesn't have the money to update it, and in any case, it's just as good as it can get.
城市的中心公园，似乎就是几片草坪，加上一些随机散布生成的树， 然后公园的中心就是一个大舞台。平时可以聚集大量的活动， 唱歌跳舞，展览展示。树阴提供了足够的遮阳环境，在烈日炎炎的环境下，形成了一个很好的栖息场所。
The city's central park seems to be just a few patches of grass with a few randomly generated trees scattered about, and then the center of the park is a big stage. The center of the park is a big stage, where a lot of activities can take place, singing and dancing, exhibitions and displays. The shade of the trees provides enough shade to create a nice place to stay in the hot sun.
公园的外部， 这个建筑看起来特别眼熟
On the outside of the park, this building looks very familiar.
在其街道上面走了一圈，有点想起罗德岛downtown的 Empire St，当年二年级上学期的studio研究街道，天天在大街上走到处看。上面的尺度感受，给人一种似曾相识的感觉，只是garden city的这条街相对来说建筑比较矮一些。
Walking around above its street, reminds me of the Empire St in downtown Rhode Island, when the second year of the first semester of the studio research street, every day in the street to walk around to see. The scale of the above feeling gives me a sense of familiarity, just the buildings here are lower.
至于为什么说这个建筑眼熟，因为这是有历史的。
As for why this building looks familiar because it has a history.
图片来源：网上
Image source: Internet
实际上这里在1930s的那个年代，曾经发生过长达10年的连绵不断的dust bowl 事件，只不过如今， 经过了好几代人的发展，可能已经忘了原来还曾经有过这样的历史。当时还没有现在的灌溉技术，如果长时间干旱，没有下雨，又天天刮着这种三四十摄氏度的风，烈日暴晒，很快土壤水分就会蒸发干，当时的土地都用来耕作了，也就没有什么草，没有什么植物在上面抓住土壤，沙漠化就此开始。风大了就会把沙子吹起来，直到发生沙尘暴。
In fact, in the 1930s, there was a 10-year-long continuous Dust Bowl event here, but nowadays, after several generations of development, we may have forgotten that there was such a history. At that time, there was no irrigation technology nowadays. If there was a long drought, no rain, the wind was blowing at 30 to 40 degrees Celsius every day, and the sun was scorching, the soil moisture would soon evaporate and dry up, and the land was used for plowing at that time, and there was not much grass, and there was not much plant to catch the soil on it, and desertification began. Higher winds would blow the sand up until dust storms occurred.
图片来源：网上
Image source: Internet
而发生了这样的dust bowl之后，恢复也是漫长的，如此大面积的土壤，要在上面能够重新生长植物，没有好几年的风调雨顺，自然的恢复也十分有限 ……
And after such a DUST BOWL occurs, the recovery is also long, such a large area of soil, to be able to regrow plants on it, without several years of favorable winds and rains, and the natural recovery is also very limited ...
现在看这里的蓝天白云，红墙建筑，这个街景的这个角度，有时候会让我想起下面的两幅画……
Now look at the blue sky and white clouds, the red-walled buildings, this angle of the street scene, sometimes reminds me of the following two paintings ......
三、城市外围和引水灌溉渠
The Surrounding of the City and the Irrigation Ditch
看完了城市中心，开始沿着城市逛了一圈。这条环路基本上可以让你快速到达你想到的地方。
After seeing the city center, I started to stroll along the city. This loop basically allows you to get to the places you think of quickly.
和其他城市也大概一样，garden city也是铁路站点孕育起来的城市。在有了人口的聚居之后，才开始有农业有各种生产活动，这沿铁路建设的仓储设备，可以想象附近的农业产量。
Like any other city, Garden City is a city that was born from the railroad station. It was only after there was a population that agriculture and various production activities began, and with the storage facilities built along the railroad tracks, you can imagine the agricultural production in the vicinity.
Image source: Internet
只不过现在的铁路可能已经很少作为客运使用了，但是在那个时候是必须品，现在飞机汽车，各种途径。
Only now the railroad may have been rarely used as passenger transportation, but in those days it was a necessity, now airplanes, cars, and all kinds of ways.
外面正在施工的房地产项目。
Real estate projects under construction outside.
整个大平原上面的内外温差很大，白天在外面，南风带着热浪，呼呼地吹，直到把你蒸发成为“咸鱼”为止。外面轻松的37-38摄氏度。
There is a huge temperature difference between inside and outside across the Great Plains, and outside during the day, the south wind carries a heat wave that blows until it vaporizes you into a "salted fish". Outside it's easily 100 degrees.
曾经的灌溉用水渠 Garden City Ditch，早在1900s的年代，农民就发现这个地方的气候环境不稳定，农业收成十分看天气，有时候风调雨顺，就能有不错的产量，有时候常年干旱，可能颗粒无收。最后只好挖渠通水，从附近的Arkansas river取水。
The Garden City Ditch used to be an irrigation canal. Back in the 1900s, farmers realized that the climate in this area was unstable and that agricultural harvests depended very much on the weather; sometimes the weather was favorable and there were good yields, and sometimes there was a year-long drought, and there might not be any harvests at all. In the end, they had to dig a canal to get water from the nearby Arkansas River.
这条渠历史上也曾经发生过重要的意义，可惜如今杂草丛生。现在上游的河流，在夏日早已断流，其实也是因为科罗拉多州建立的水坝层层截留，至今Arkansas River在夏日，也就只能发生断流，而这些原本围绕那条河建设的灌溉系统，已经不再好用。
This canal has also been historically worked but unfortunately is full of weed today. The river upstream, now, has long been cut off in the summer. Because of layers of dams built by the State of Colorado, in the summer Arkansas River will experience river cutoffs, and these irrigation systems that were originally constructed around that river, no longer work well.
上游一个个的水坝，在这本书里面，说的是上游的这种行为，就是lion share, 直接的影响就是下游没有足够的灌溉用水，只能开采地下水。
Dam after dam upstream, in this book, says that this behavior upstream is lion's share, and the immediate effect is that there's not enough irrigation water downstream, and there's only groundwater extraction.
也确实，如果上游构建堡垒， 层层加码，这些水到达下游的水量， 就已经不足以构建和孕育更好的生态环境了，而上游则可以坐享其成，更好地发展自己的城市。下游就惨了，连生活都未必能够满足。
It is also true that if the upstream builds a fortress, layer upon layer, the amount of water that reaches the downstream is no longer enough to build and nurture a better ecosystem, while the upstream can sit back and enjoy the benefits and develop their own cities better. The downstream is in a miserable situation, and may not even be able to make ends meet.
现在的garden city ditch灌溉用的水渠，看起来都已经荒废，也不知道还有没有继续使用。
The current Garden City ditch irrigation canals seem to be abandoned, and I wonder if they are still in use.
图片来源：网上
Image source: Internet
但是以前，曾经是这个样子的。
But before, it used to look like this.
现在已经杂草丛生，大概是这些植物都会抓住水渠这个能够汇水的地方，好好生长吧。
Now it's overgrown with weeds, probably because all these plants will grab the ditch as a place where water can catch up and grow well.
沿着城市周边继续探索，四处的谷仓，充满平静祥和的气息……
Continue exploring along the city's perimeter, with barns all around, filled with calm and peacefulness ......
四、城市鸟瞰
City Aerial Perspective
来到这个城市，也就更加好奇这条河的状态，毕竟整个城市以前是依赖铁路以及这条Arkansas river，才最终孕育出一个城市。这条河在我到的时候已经干枯，很多树最后都只能野蛮生长在河道上，以静待降雨，使得河道湿润，更好生长，在其他地方，如果不依赖灌溉，生存环境实在艰难。
Coming to the city made me even more curious about the state of the river, after all, the whole city used to rely on the railroad as well as this Arkansas river to finally give birth to a city. This river was already dry when I arrived, and many of the trees ended up having to grow wild on the river to wait for the rains to fall, making the river wet and better for growth, which is a really tough environment to survive in other places if you don't rely on irrigation.
河道旁边的公园，上面有灌溉的树生长得非常好，远远好于河道上面的那些树。
The park next to the river has trees with irrigation growing very well above it, far better than those above the river.
无人机再高一点，基本上就能看到整个城市的全貌了，离开了城市之后，树基本都么没有几颗。
If the drone is a little higher up, you can basically see the whole city, and once you leave the city, there aren't many trees left.
Arkansas 河上面的痕迹，似乎被很多山地摩托开过之后卡变成了十分无序有机的道路形态，也似乎是越干旱的河道，越容易被各种各样的人和交通工具穿越，然后原来的植被就越来越稀少。
The traces of the Arkansas River seem to have been driven over by many mountain bikes and turned into a very unorganized and organic road pattern, and it also seems that the drier the river is, the more likely it is to be traversed by all kinds of people and vehicles, and then the original vegetation becomes more and more scarce.
没有水没有植物的土壤，黄黄的，感觉可以随时被风刮跑。
The soil without water and without plants was yellow and felt like it could be blown away by the wind at any time.
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树和城市生长在一起，树是人类的好朋友。
Trees and cities grow together, and trees are human's best friends.
河道上野蛮生长的树，生存环境恶劣，没有得到悉心照料和稳定的水分灌溉，显得相对来说比较矮小。
The trees that grow wildly on the river are in a poor environment, not well cared for, and not irrigated with stable water, so they are relatively small.
这边是一个bison ranch 保护区的状态，上面的植被情况可以反应出整个中部大平原原来的植被情况，可以说是没有被开发的时候可能大概的样子。在下一篇我会详细介绍这个bison保护区。
This is the state of a bison ranch reserve, and the vegetation above reflects the original vegetation of the entire Central Great Plains, which can be said to be what it might have looked like when it was undeveloped. I will introduce this bison ranch in detail in the next post.
公园里面的水上乐园，成为了整个garden city 夏日玩水的好去处。来到这里，也就能明白水究竟多么重要，太少不能生存，太多又淹没以至不能生存。
The water park inside the park has become a good place to play water in summer in the whole garden city. When you come here, you can understand how important water is, too little can't survive, too much and drowned so that can't survive.
Garden City 的整个游览和印象也就到此为止了，下一篇将会介绍附近默默无闻的Friends of Sandsage Bison。
This is the end of the tour and impression of Garden City, the next article will introduce the nearby obscure place - Friends of Sandsage Bison.
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