310 CHiyA AND HER PEOPLE 



may travel all over China, and with English he can make his way 

 over the rest of tlie world." Tiie written language, however, is prac- 

 tically alike for all portions of the empire, and the educated China- 

 man can make his wants known with brusii and paper in any part of 

 the kingdom. 



The two rivers flowing through the Celestial Empire with which the 

 world is most familiar are the Hoangho, or Yellow River, and the 

 Yangtze. Tiie first is fre<{uently called by Chinese writers '• The 

 Sorrow of China," on account of its frequent and disastrous inun- 

 dations. Rising in Kuku-nor, it enters tiie province of Kansu, and 

 passes the ancient city of Lanchau, capital of the i)rovince, eight 

 hundred miles from its source. Flowing along, parallel with the 

 Great Wall for five hundred and thirty miles, it })asses beyond the 

 borders of China into Mongolia. Reentering the Flowery Kingdom 

 between the provinces of Shensi and Shansi, forming their boundarv, 

 the river, increasing in size as it flows, strikes eastward to the sea 

 through Honan and Shantung, passing the walls of Kaifeng and 

 Tsinan in its course. In former days the Yellow River, after passing 

 Kaifeng, flowed still farther to the eastward, through the province of 

 Kansu, sweeping into the Pacific Ocean some hundred miles north 

 of Chinkiang, on the Yangtze. 



The great Yangtze rises in Tibet, and after flowing more than 

 a thousand miles through a thinl}'^ populated country passes into 

 China near Batang, in the province of Szechuen. At this point it 

 is locally known as the " Kinsha," or River of the Golden Sand. 

 Flowing from here south and east, it forms the boundary between 

 Szechuen and Yunnan, receiving a large tributarj', the Kialing, 

 from the north. Passing through the province of Szechuen and 

 past the walls of Chungking, the river enters the populous province 

 of Hupeh and rushes through the magnificent gorges to Ichang. 

 Hankau, Wuchang, and Hanyang, at the confluence of the Hjin 

 River with the Yangtze and the head of deep-water navigation, are 

 passed, and from here, skirting the northern extremity of Kiangsi 

 Province, at Kiukiang, near the mouth of the celebrated Povang 

 Lake, the river strikes northeast, entering the province of Kiangsu 

 near Nankiu, the ancient cajiital. After intersecting the Grand Canal 

 at Chinkiang, the Yangtze discharges its immense volume of water 

 through two magnificent deltas. 



The canal system of China is the most extensive in the world, with 

 the possible exception of that of Holland. \\'herever the la}^ of the 



