Three Years in Western China by Hosie Alexander Sir

Author:Hosie, Alexander, Sir [Hosie, Alexander, Sir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Travel, Asia, China
ISBN: 9786155565267
Google: hl1yAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: eKitap Projesi
Published: 2015-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

Three roads lead from Yün-nan Fu to Ch’ung-k’ing; there is the road by way of Tung-ch’uan and Chao-t’ung to the Yang-tsze, and the road by way of Kuei-yang, the capital of the province of Kuei-chow. Both of these routes I traversed in 1882. But there is an intermediate road which, leaving the high-road to Kuei-yang at Chan-i Chou, goes north and east through the north-west corner of Kuei-chow to the Yung-ning River and the Yang-tsze, and this route I now decided to follow.

PROSPECTIVE TRADE OUTLOOK.

Before giving a description of this country, however, I must say a word about the West of Yün-nan, and the prospects of trade across the Burmese frontier. The most casual reader will have observed that the province of Yün-nan is covered with ruined cities, towns, and villages; that its soil, fruitful without a doubt, is only partly cultivated; and that its population is exceedingly scant. True it is, immigration is taking place from the northern province of Ssŭ-ch’uan, and lands laid waste by the rebellion are being taken up; but the process is very slow, for, among the hardy Ssŭ-ch’uanese, Yün-nan has an evil name, and they are loth to quit their own productive fields to till what is at present inferior land. Room must, however, be found for the ever-increasing population of Ssŭ-ch’uan, which is surely destined to develop both Kuei-chow and Yün-nan; yet many years must elapse before such a happy consummation can be effected. Until that time comes, no great development of our trade with Western China through Burmah need be looked for. It will be said that these are the views of a pessimist, and that the introduction of railways would put new life into the country. Granted that there are people foolish enough to furnish capital for the construction of railways through an impossible country—that is, supposing the necessary permission to have been obtained—I have yet to learn that there can be trade without trade-products, and that shareholders would expect no remuneration from their capital. It will be time enough to think of railways when half the province of Yün-nan is under cultivation and some of its dead industries have been revived.

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