RIVER PROBLEMS IN CHINA 7 



The Yangtse outside Woosung is too exposed for convenient 

 unloading by lighters and in any case this process is a slow 

 and inefficient one. Consequently the question of further 

 improving the Whangpoo conies up for discussion. 



Naval architects confidently expect draught of 40 feet 

 to become usual in a few years and it is becoming a serious 

 problem how China can be maintained in connection with 

 the trans-Pacific Ocean services. 



The Yellow Eiver (including the Huai and Grand Canal). 



The great plain of North China consists almost, if not 

 entirely, of the delta of the Yellow Eiver. After passing the 

 southernmost part of the Shansi plateau (a spur of the 

 Mongolian Plateau) its course is no longer defined or 

 obstructed by any high land except the mountains of Shan- 

 tung. The latter was in earlier days undoubtedly an island 

 and the Yellow River delta formed fanwise from Kai-feng-fu 

 eastwards. It so happens that the general mass of China 

 has not been submerged under the sea since the middle of 

 the Secondary geological epoch (at least fifty million years) 

 and during a large part of this time there have been dry 

 regions to the North from which sand has been carried by the 

 wind. Hence it happens that Shensi and Shansi both possess 

 great thickness of this air-borne sand or loess and the tribu- 

 taries of the Yellow Rivers are steadily carving it out. The 

 water of the stream is therefore unprecedently heavily 

 charged with silt and great quantities are also forced along 

 the bottom as mud. Along a course either north or south 

 of Shantung the fall to the sea is about the same, 1 in 5,000, 

 which is a very large gradient for a big river. The muddy 

 bottom steadily works forward and raises the channel. 

 When the river is swollen by the summer rains the water 

 level rises high above the surrounding land. Near the sea 

 in the old bed south of Shantung the bottom of the channel 

 is higher than the adjacent land. Dykes alone protect the 

 country but as at present arranged can do little more than 

 postpone the trouble. Some idea of the uniqueness of the 

 river is given when it is noticed that it has no tributaries for 

 some 300 miles from its mouth. The only water connections 

 are to irrigation and navigation canals which are controlled by 

 sluiceways and serve during high level periods to draw off 

 water. 



The migrations of the Yellow River extending from 

 Tientsin to Chinkiang have built up the plain but there are 

 several other drainage channels, especially the Huai to the 



