THIRTY THOUSAND MILES IN CHINA 9 



During the summer the water-level of the Han rises 20 feet, 

 sometimes more, above the adjacent plain. 



Of the Yellow Eiver one can hardly speak as of a high- 

 way; for the most part it is useless except as a means of 

 ■drainage and irrigation, and is one of the most unmanageable 

 rivers in the world. In length it is but little inferior to the 

 Yangtze, being 2,500 miles. 



Eising in Tibet it is already a stream 200 yards wide 

 when it enters north-western Kansu where its bed is 8,000 

 feet above sea level from which it drops 5,000 feet in its 

 north-easterly passage across the province. From Kansu the 

 Yellow Eiver runs north to the high land of Mongolia where 

 its course is changed to almost due east. At Hokow the 

 river turns sharply to the south and continues in that 

 •direction for about 480 miles until it is joined near Tungkwan 

 by the Eiver Wei and turns again sharply to the east. 



The Wei rises in Eastern Kansu and flows south-eastly 

 to Shensi, and crosses that province in a nearly straight line 

 from west to east. Its well-watered valley was the birth- 

 place of Chinese civilization and is full of relics of the past. 

 It has also the reputation of being the most fertile land in 

 China. About nine miles from the river on its right bank, 

 and half-way across the province, stands the great city of 

 Sian. 



At the Tungkwan bend the bed of the Yellow Eiver is 

 still 1,300 feet above sea-level. At the Sanmen rapids, which 

 no boat can ascend, the river again enters the hills, to leave 

 them finally at Mengching, a place above Menghsien, in 

 Honan, about 200 miles below Tungkwan. Here the great 

 river, running from four to six miles an hour, finds itself on 

 the level plain, with still 400 miles to go before it can reach 



the sea. 



This is where it is most to be dreaded, because the mud 

 and sand carried down by its stream have actually raised the 

 bed of the river until it is several yards above the level of the 

 surrounding country. Consequently there are few important 

 towns on its banks. At its crossing with the Grand Canal, 

 its bed is 16 feet above the level of the Canal. 



During the whole known historical period, this river has 

 frequentlv^hanged its course for the last 350 miles. These 

 chances have swept over a fan-shaped area of 60 degrees m 

 one of the most densely populated and highly cultivated 

 regions in all China, and have, consequently caused great loss 

 oAife both directly bv flood, and indirectly by consequent 

 famine through destruction of standing crops as well as of 

 stored food supplies. This has earned for it the title of 

 "China's Great Sorrow." 



