Ningyüan Fu, Yen-yüan Hsien, and Yung-pei Ting to western Yünnan. Goods are carried from Sui Fu up the Min River to Chiating Fu on its right bank and at its junction with the Ta-tu River. Here they are transhipped into smaller boats which carry them up the Ya-chou River, which enters the Ta-tu before its junction with the Min, to Yachou Fu, an important city four days south west of Chêngtu. From Yachou Fu they are conveyed overland south through Ching-chi Hsien, Yüeh-hsi Ting, Ningyüan Fu, and Hui-li Chou to Yünnan. It is a fourteen days' journey from Yachou Fu to Ningyuan Fu, and from the latter city nine more days are required to reach the Yünnan frontier. The hopes which the traveller in search of trade routes. clings to with tenacity are rudely and summarily blasted by a glance at the mountainous country through which this road passes; nor is there any improvement when as a last chance he turns west from Ningyuan. Fu in the desperate attempt to reach western Yünnan, This latter route (No. 4) was described to Baron von Richthofen as the great trade highway from Tali Fu to Ch'êngtu previous to the Mahommedan rebellion. I wish he had seen it! I was told the same story, and doubtless there is some truth in it; but the vestiges of this great highway are few indeed-a yard or two of unburied pavement may be discovered occasionally on a mountain side-but the greater part of it between Ningyüan Fu and Tali Fu is a mere bridle path winding up and down mountain sides. As evidence in support of the "great highway" theory I may state that I met a Thibetan caravan between these two places. (5). Instead, however, of striking west from Ningyüan Fu the traveller may proceed south to Huili Chou, and thence turn south west to Tali Fu. Of this route, which is described as difficult, I have no personal knowledge; but knowing the routes from Tali Fu to Yünnan Fu, and Tali Fu to Ningyuan, Fu I can easily imagine what the intermediate route is like. The journey by it occupies twentythree days, as against twenty-one days by route (4). Before entering Shang-kuan ("Upper Pass"), which guards the northern approach to Tali Fu, the Thibetan road, which joins the Ch'êngtu road to Thibet at Bathang, strikes the Tali Fu road. Of this road I know nothing, and will say nothing. It is the route followed by the Thibetans who flock to the fair which is held annually outside the west gate of Tali in the third Chinese moon. (6). The Bhamo route by way of Têngyüeh Chou and Yungchang Fu to Tali Fu. This journey has been so frequently described that it is probably the best known route to Yünnan. The difficulties of the road have been carefully pointed out; and those travellers who have performed the whole journey are agreed that these difficulties are a barrier to a swifter means of communication. At present the journey between Tali Fu and Bhamo can be performed in some four-and-twenty days; and, as the result of inquiry at the former place and at Hsia-kuan, the great trade depôt of western Yünnan through which the highway passes a few miles to the south of Tali, I believe I am near the mark when I say that the total annual value of the trade between Bhamo and Tali amounts to about half a million sterling. Yünnan. (7). The Songkoi or Red River route to Southern Anyone wishing to obtain information regarding this important trade route to Southern Yünnan would do well to turn to the "China Review" for May and June, 1881, where he will find an interesting article, entitled "The Province of Yunnan," which contains a translation of the Trade Report for 1879 of Comte de Kergaradec, then Consul for France at Hanoi. In addition to careful statistics of the trade between Yünnan and Tonquin he will find desirable information regarding the navigation of the Songkoi. Here we are told that the total value of the trade between Yünnan and Hanoi during 1879 amounted to 3,225,000 francs, or £169,000; and that "in ordinary times thirty to forty days are occupied in the voyage from Hanoi to Lao-kai, and ten or twelve from Lao-kai to Man-hao." If this river, as some French writers have asserted, is capable of steam navigation in its upper waters, it is without doubt a very valuable trade route to Southern and South-eastern Yünnan. But these writers disagree as to how far it is navigable; and M. Rocher, in his work "La Province Chinoise du Yunnan," says "There is every reason to believe that Lao-kai, considering the propinquity of Yünnan and Tonquin, will become the extreme point of steam navigation, and the entrepôt of Yunnan." If M. Rocher had said "the entrepôt of South-eastern Yünnan," we should have been disposed to agree with him; but we cannot for a moment accept the conclusion that the trade of Western and Northern Yünnan would be affected by the opening of the Songkoi to steam navigation. Le Comte de Kergaradec sums up his Report in the following words: "In conclusion we are compelled to admit that under the most favourable circumstances, under conditions very different from those of to-day, the trade by the Red River could hardly attain a total of twenty million francs," say £800,000; but the writer of the article thinks that "if free access were obtainable via the Red River, the neighbouring provinces would also benefit, and take advantage of this outlet." I fear that those acquainted with the physical characteristics of Western China will think otherwise. But there is one point on which I wish to put this writer straight. He says in his next sentence, "Passengers from Yunnan might then reach the capital, Peking, in 30 days instead of 100 days, the time it now occupies via the Hankow route." By Yünnan I presume the provincial capital is meant, and by the "Hankow route" "the Tungt'ing lake and Yüan River route." Whether by this route, or by the Sui Fu or Luchou routes, passengers can in point of fact reach Peking from Yünnan Fu in less than half a hundred days. (8). The Canton and West River route to Yünnan. The West River is navigable by native craft from Canton to Pêsê, a prefectural city in the west of the province of Kwangsi, whence goods are carried overland to Yünnan Fu. The journey by this route is long and tedious; but it has one advantage over the Yangtsze routes to Yunnan Fu, namely, that the overland journey from Pêsê can be performed in several days less than by the Sui Fu or Luchou routes. But so far as foreign manufac 1 tures are concerned, the Yangtsze routes at present do not compete with the Canton route to Yünnan Fu; they are more concerned with the supply of northern Yünnan. When steamers run to Lao-kai or Man-hao on the Songkoi, and to Ch'ungk'ing, Luchou and Sui Fu on the Upper Yangtsze, this trade route must inevitably suffer the fate of the once important trade route from Canton through Hunan to Ssu-ch'uan, which has, as I have already stated, become insignificant since the opening of the Lower Yangtsze to steam navigation. (9). The route to Yünnan by way of Kueiyang Fu. This route is too far from water communication to be of any importance. Yunnan Fu is distant twenty-one days' journey from Kueiyang Fu, whence another seven days are required to reach Chênyüan Fu, which is, as I have already mentioned, the highest navigable point on the Yuan River. Kueiyang is also distant thirteen days from Yung-ning Hsien on the Yung-ning River, twelve days from the Ch'ichiang River, and fifteen days from Ch'ungk'ing. The road from Kueiyang to Yünnan Fu, with the exception of the last five stages, is exceedingly mountainous and difficult, and the little trade there is consists principally of opium from Yunnan. I have thus endeavoured briefly to point out the existing trade routes to Western China. I have not in a paper like the present entered into the details of trade, for they would fill a volume. Nor have I spoken of the attempts that have recently been made to find a trade route to South-western Yünnan. But the foreign merchant in China may rest assured that were a dozen trade routes to Western Yünnan found to-morrow they will not affect the Yangtsze routes which supply Ssu-ch'uan, Kueichou, and Northern Yünnan. On the other hand, he may be assured that the present trade, great as it is, is capable of enormous expansion, and that the first step to ensure such expansion is to open the Upper Yangtsze to steam navigation. Let not the words 'rapids' and 'gorges' dissuade him from the attempt. |