CHAPTER XV 

 WESTERN CHINA 



Minerals and Mineral Wealth 



MINING has been carried on in China for some thou- 

 sands of years and, in spite of crude methods and the 

 superstition of Fung Shui against which the industry 

 has had to contend, an enormous quantity of mineral wealth 

 has been won from the earth. During the Han Dynasty (206 

 B.C. to a.d. 25) coal was used as fuel in certain districts, and taxes 

 were levied on iron and salt. Iron mines have been worked in 

 China from very remote times, and this industry, like that 

 of coal-digging, has always been fairly free from official inter- 

 ference. But mining for other minerals and metals has ever 

 been more or less a Government monopoly, and especially 

 is this true of gold, copper, tin, and salt. Intermittently 

 during past centuries, the industry has been vigorously pursued 

 in restricted localities, yet, paradoxically enough, mining in 

 China is in its infancy, for the science of the subject has not 

 been understood or developed, even though the products of 

 the industry have been fully appreciated and generally applied. 

 During the past quarter of a century there has been a real 

 awakening on the part of the Chinese to the importance of 

 developing the mining industry, and it is safe to say that the 

 next fifty years will see the mineral and metalliferous resources 

 of the country tapped and worked on all sides, and mining will 

 assume an importance colossal in comparison with its position 

 in the past. 



The mineral wealth of China has attracted very consider- 

 able attention from Occidentals during the last decade or two, 

 and concession-hunters have been busy acquiring mining 

 rights and grants from the Central Government at Peking. 



