TRADE ROUTES. 



21 



though the road has nothing to distinguish it from the 

 ordinary Chinese road across level ground. It would 

 be difficult to imagine a greater contrast than that 

 presented by the high, densely wooded, almost uninhabit- 

 ed Kachin frontier ranges on the one hand, and 

 the open paddy plains surrounded by rounded 

 granite hills on the other. These are cultivated wher- 

 ever irrigation is possible, and contain scores of peace- 

 ful Shan villages each in its grove of trees. On each 

 side of the narrow plains rise the rounded grassy slopes 

 of the high granitic ranges which bound it. Tree vege- 

 tation is as a rule absent, indeed throughout Yunnan 

 wherever the population is fairly large the forests and 

 undergrowth have disappeared. This is a well-known 

 feature of Chinese civilization, and has risen partly for 

 strategic reasons, and partly on account of the neces- 

 sity of wood for fuel. 



A high dividing range separates the valleys of Kan-ngai and 

 Nan-tien, and the Ta-ping here flows through the deep and 

 narrow Hu-lu-ko gorge. The road winds over this range 

 and then descends to the plains of the state of Nan- 

 tien, which are by no means so rich as those of the 

 sister state. The cultivated area is not so extensive 

 and a poor Chinese element predominates over the Shan 

 in the population. After passing through Nan-tien the 

 road commences an ascent which culminates in the 

 high level valley in which the walled city of Teng-yiieh 

 is built at an elevation of 5,370 feet above the sea. 

 Teng-yuch is the place of residence of a British Consul, 

 a Commissioner of Customs of the Chinese Maritime 

 Customs Service, whose duty it is to take account of 

 all the trade passing through and to collect the taxes 

 on the same (European British subjects have held this 

 post since its formation), and various high Chinese 

 officials, including the Tao Tai of the I-Hsi-Dao in the 

 old Imperial days, or Commissioner of the Western 

 Division of the province, and a Chen Tai or General in the 

 Chinese Army. 



The intervening 170 miles between Teng-yiieh and Ta-li Fu 

 are of a very different nature to those between Bhamo 



