SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 
Peking to 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 must be yery 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 west, 
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 
