LOPUEOUS DF BE NU LiL SZECHUAN 
1099 
populated tracts on the face of the globe. 
is allowed to go to waste. 
Photo by Rollin T. Chamberlin 
THE VEGETABLE GROWTH ON THE CHENGTU PLAIN IS EXTREMELY LUXURIANT 
As it is one of the most productive, so the Chengtu plain is one of the most densely 
Save the ground occupied by the graves, no land 
The farms are crowded in so densely and are so assiduously 
worked that the fields look more like garden plots than open country farms (see page 1102). 
water. From April till November, dur- 
ing the season of floods from the moun- 
tains, the water is directed into these 
trenches. 
Without such an adaptable system to 
take care of the great increase of water 
in the summer season, the stream would 
frequently shift its course and carry dev- 
astation with it. To realize the protec- 
tive value of this work, one has only to 
compare with it the unharnessed Hwang 
Ho, whose tragic appellation, “China’s 
Sorrow,’ fittingly expresses the great 
disasters which have attended its wild 
migrations across the eastern plain of 
China. 
Li Ping, who originally devised this 
irrigation project, did not live to see its 
completion, but his plans were carried 
out and extended by his son. In honor 
of these two able hydraulic engineers, 
whose well-directed labors have brought 
untold blessings to the many millions of 
people dependent upon the produce of 
the Chengtu plain since their day, there 
has been erected just outside the walls of 
Kuan Hsien a beautiful temple, facing 
the scene of Li’s great triumph. Its base, 
with singular propriety, rests close to the 
water’s edge, just opposite the long jetty 
which taps the main stream. ‘Thence, in 
a succession of pavilions, or separate 
temples, the terraced structure reaches 
tier above tier high up the mountain 
slope (see page 1096). 
These pavilions are built and decorated 
in the highest style of Chinese art, and, 
what is unusual if not quite remarkable 
in China, the edifice and everything con- 
nected with it are kept in an excellent 
state of repair. The total effect of the as- 
sembled pavilions stretching up the moun- 
