POPULOUS AND BEAUTIFUL SZECHUAN 
‘i 
eis mae 
Photo by Rollin T. Chamberlin 
A BAMBOO SUSPENSION BRIDGE IN THE SZECHUAN ALPS 
Kuan Hsien. As one coming from the 
southeast approaches the head of the 
plain at this debouchure, he finds himself 
stepping up at intervals from lower to 
higher broad platforms, or plain-like ter- 
races, over the edges of which the rapid 
streamlets of the wonderful system of 
irrigation tumble in miniature falls. 
These low terraces and the general 
slope of the area give the key to the mode 
of formation of the entire plain. It is 
clear that it is one immense flattened al- 
luvial fan, spread from the debouchure 
of the Min over all the lower tract be- 
tween the Szechuan Alps on the west and 
the buttes and sub-mountains to the east, 
burying the minor undulations under its 
great volume of alluvium. 
Springing among the lofty peaks of 
the Szechuan Alps, the Min River rushes 
down its montane trough to its portal 
through the “Azure Wall,” the last 
mountain rampart at Kuan Hsien. Once 
out of the mountains its wild plunging is 
checked, its carrying power is reduced, 
and in its less turbulent journey beyond 
it throws down, as a burden no longer 
bearable, its boulders, cobbles, gravels, 
sands, and silts, the abrasive tools with 
which it has been cutting deeper its 
trough through the rough country. 
Thus in the course of recent geologic 
times it built up the great sloping plain, 
and laid the foundation for one of the 
loveliest garden spots on earth. 
INTRICATE IRRIGATING TRENCHES DEVISED 
2,100 YEARS AGO 
Favored with a naturally rich alluvial 
soil, this plain must centuries ago, even 
in its primitive state, have presented rare 
attractions to the Chinese immigrants 
from Shansi. But since its early settling 
the genius of the Chinese has vastly bet- 
tered its condition and increased its pro- 
ductiveness. The fundamental improve- 
