8 THIRTY THOUSAND MILES IN CHINA 



Rivers, in the best sections of the Great Plain and in Sze- 

 chwan land is so valuable for cultivation that as little as 

 possible is spared for highways. Then, too, these are the 

 very regions where the population is so dense and labor so 

 cheap that most transport on land is by human bearers who 

 need only a footpath. And finally the frequency of water- 

 ways on which the cheapness of transport in boats of all sizes 

 controls the situation for both short and long hauls even up 

 stream. 



The Five Rivers of First Importance. 



Waterways both natural and artificial are tremendously 

 used wherever available and China for the most part is well 

 supplied. Of rivers one thinks first of the mighty Yangtze, 

 a veritable aorta of trade that traverses the entire width of 

 China proper from Tibet to the sea, and is navigable for ocean 

 going vessels for 600 miles, by smaller steamers for 400 more 

 and by still smaller steamers for another stretch of 400 miles, 

 while junks of fair size can proceed still another 100 miles 

 or so. 



The navigation beyond the first 1,000 miles is, however, 

 quite precarious. We think secondly of the Si Kiang or 

 West River and its tributaries in South China. Rising in 

 Yunnan this stream is a great river by the time it reaches the 

 Kwangsi-Kwangtung border. Marked in its upper and middle 

 courses by fine gorges and in its lower course by a magnifi- 

 ciently fertile delta, it is navigable for coasting vessels as far 

 as Canton and for smaller steamers as far as Wuchow while 

 launches ascend the higher courses of its tributaries as well 

 as of the main stream for another 150 miles or so and smaller 

 craft go clear to the Western boundary of Kwangsi and to the 

 Northern boundary of Kwangtung. This river system is 

 second in importance only to that of the Yangtze from an 

 economic point of view. 



Next in importance is the Han, which joins the Yangtze 

 at Hankow. This rises on the Shensi-Szechwan boundary. 

 It is navigated by small steamers as far as Siangyang a 

 distance of 300 miles, and during summer by cargo boats and 

 houseboats and by smaller craft in all seasons up to Han- 

 chung GOO miles further. In its course across Shensi it 

 traverses abrupt gorges and its bed is rock-stream. It be- 

 comes readily navigable only at Laohokow where it widens 

 rapidly to a width of 2,600 feet. Further down it again 

 narrows and at its mouth is but, 200 feet wide in low-water 

 season. In this lower part of its course, it has the peculiar 

 feature enjoyed also by the Yellow River, of a bed higher than 

 the adjoining plain so that embankments are necessary. 



