POPULOUS AND BEAUTIFUL SZECHUAN 
A Visit to thé Restless Province of China, in which the 
Present Revolution Began 
By Rortiin T. CHAMBERLIN 
F THE eighteen provinces of 
() China, Szechuan is at once the 
largest, the most populous, in 
many respects the richest, and altogether 
the most picturesque and beautiful. This 
fair and far interior province, lying be- 
tween the 26th and 34th parallels and 
extending from 98° to 110° east longi- 
tude, spans a latitudinal range little short 
of Florida and Georgia taken together 
and lies nearly antipodal to them in longi- 
tude. Its area of 181,000 square miles 
bears a population estimated at 50,000,- 
000 to 70,000,000 (see map, page 1097). 
The political bounds of Szechuan have 
been gradually shifted westward at the 
expense of Tibet, so that it now embraces 
the high mountains that border the Tib- 
etan plateau, and these have thus come to 
be known as the Szechuan Alps. By this 
extension the western edge of Szechuan 
laps well up on the border of that great 
elevated tract of south central Asia 
which is the world’s most declared ex- 
pression of the stupendous deformative 
movements of the later Tertiary times. 
It is, however, only the ragged upturned 
eastern edge of the great elevation that is 
embraced in Szechuan; the plateau mass 
still lies in Tibet. As a result of these 
deformative movements, the surface of 
Szechuan has been divided into two por- 
tions of rather strikingly different aspect. 
The western part, comprising some- 
what more than half the entire area, is 
characterized by a remarkable parallelism 
of lofty ridges. Deeply sunken between 
these lie profound valleys and precipitous 
gorges, through which course the upper 
branches of several of the great rivers of 
southeastern Asia. On the summits of 
the ridges stand forth some of the grand- 
est mountain peaks of the globe. 
The eastern portion of Szechuan is ac- 
cidented by much lower, even-crested 
mountain ranges trending northeast- 
southwest. Between these ranges lie 
open plains, butte areas, or broad hill 
tracts, giving the intermontane basins a 
general park-like aspect. The flat-topped 
parallel mountain ranges are highest and 
most prominent near the eastern edge of 
the province, where the Yang-tse Kiang 
in cutting through them has fone: its 
famous series of gorges. 
In general structure and aspect these 
eastern Szechuan ranges call strongly to 
mind our own Appalachian Mountains. 
Westward of the gorge ranges, toward 
the center of the province, the mountains 
generally die away and give place to 
picturesque red buttes. These are so 
prevalent and dominating and their color- 
ation so marked that this central portion 
of the province has come to be known as 
the Red Basin of Szechuan. 
THE CHENGTU PLAIN 
Heading far up in the recesses of the 
Szechuan Alps, the Min River cascades 
down a deep valley until it reaches the 
east edge of the mountains, when it turns 
southward along their flank. At the 
debouchure of the Min from the high 
mountains there lies a very remarkable 
plain, which might well have taken its 
name from the river, but which in reality 
took it from the capital of the province, 
Chengtu. Geographic names do not al- 
ways follow the law of cause and effect ; 
the river made the plain, and the plain 
made the city, but the city gave it the 
name. 
The greatest dimension of the plain, 
some 70 miles, lies along the mountain 
front, while it stretches away from the 
mountains perhaps 40 miles southeast- 
ward. From its southeastern border this 
unique plain rises gradually but steadily 
toward the mountains or, more specific- 
ally, toward the mountainous gateway 
from which the Min River debouches at 
