Chunche is an Uyghur

Uyghur language

Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...

 word that refers to a kind of building used to make raisin

Raisin

Raisins are dried grapes. They are produced in many regions of the world. Raisins may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking and brewing...

s in Turpan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. The building has a dark interior, and the walls are covered with a large number of holes to allow wind to pass through and assist in the drying process through evaporation

Evaporation

Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....

. Chunches are usually built in high, windy, areas due to the need for the wind.

These structures have long attracted attention of visitors to Turpan. The 19th-century Russian traveler, Grigory Grumm-Grzhimaylo

Grigory Grumm-Grzhimaylo

Grigory Yefimovich Grumm-Grzhimaylo was a Russian entomologist, best known for his expeditions to Central Asia , West Mongolia and Tuva, and the Russian Far East.-Life and work:...

, wrote of Turpan:

Turfan is famous for its raisins, which one can deem to be the best in the world. They are dried in drying houses of a completely peculiar type.

The drying process takes about 40 days.
Grapes that have been dried in a drying house (the "air-dried" kind) usually appear green or yellow, because of the shade, while grapes dried under direct sun appear dark.
For 2009/2010, China's annual raisin production was forecasted by international expert at 155,000 metric tons (largest in the world), of which 75% would come from
Turpan.

External links

• 葡萄干晾房 (Grape drying houses), a photo report