Home Territories 15 
Range. There it turns east, squeezing between the two ranges 
to reach the plains of Shantung Province from 200 to 400 feet 
above sea-level. In Shantung this remarkable river by depositing 
silt has gradually raised its own bed above the surrounding 
country, with the result that every few years disastrous floods 
drown thousands of people and bring about frequent changes of 
the river's course. In 1938 it abandoned a channel carrying it 
past Tsinan to the Gulf of Pechili for a new course that reaches 
the sea south of the Shantung hills and peninsula, nearly 300 
miles away. 
The Yangtse or Long River, which first flows southeast or 
south from the Tibetan Plateau, is turned to the northeast by 
the mountains of Yunnan; it then pursues a winding but gen- 
erally easterly course to the East China Sea near Shanghai. 
This east-west river reinforces the barrier-like effect of the 
Ch'in-ling Mountains. For half of its 2000-mile course it is 
closely beset by encroaching mountains; and 1000 miles from 
the sea it forms the famous Yangtse Gorges. Its delta is criss- 
crossed by thousands of miles of canals. Its upper course passes 
through the red rocks of Szechwan. 
The Tibetan highlands are connected with the Yunnan Moun- 
tains by the Likiang Range, which separates the valleys of the 
Mekong and the Yangtse Rivers. These send extensive offshoots 
eastward between the Yangtse and the Si-kiang or West River 
(which reaches the South China Sea at Canton) as far as 
Fukien and Chekiang Provinces. Those rather low mountains, 
reaching 5000 to 6000 feet in their central section and 4000 
feet in Fukien, fill almost the whole of that vast area of south- 
eastern China. 
The mountains of Yunnan also send off arms to the southeast 
and eastsoutheast. The ranges to the southeast extend between 
the Mekong River and the South China Sea through Indo-China 
to the Langbian Peaks in southern Annam. They are relatively 
low, in the southern part rarely reaching to 6000 feet. The 
