SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 



Peking \o Lan-chou Fu will be reduced from thirty 

 odd to seven days. This will open up the vast 

 areas of Western Kansu, the New Dominion and 

 Eastern Thibet to trade with the coast, and the 

 results nuist be very far reaching. Hitherto the 

 barges which have brought commerce down the 

 river have been unable to return ; but, with 

 steamers passing up and down, this difficulty 

 will be solved. Better and stronger barges will 

 be built to be towed to and fro, carrying com- 

 merce up as well as down the river. But all 

 this is indefinitely postponed owing to the dis- 

 turbed state of the country and the lack of funds 

 at the Capital. 



Yang-kao, the present terminus of the railway, 

 is about ninety miles from Kalgan, and lies on 

 the edge of the Ta-t'ung Fu plain, just south of 

 the outer loop of the Great Wall, and within the 

 eastern border of Shansi. 



The railway, after going south from Kalgan 

 for about four miles, turns abruptly to the w^est, 

 skirting the end of a ridge of high hills. It next 

 takes a diagonal course across the wide valley of 

 the Ta-yang Ho, which splits up into three rivers, 

 called Tung-yang Ho, Hsi-yang Ho and Nan- 

 yang Ho respectively, just before Tsai-kou-pu, 

 a town thirty miles from Kalgan, is reached. The 

 line crosses the first two of these rivers before 

 reaching the station of Tsai-kou-pu. It subse- 

 quently follows the course of the last, which is 



102 



