A wandering student in the Far East/Yün-nan Fu to Tali Fu
CHAPTER XIII.
YÜN-NAN FU TO TALI FU.
I passed out of the north gate of Yün-nan Fu on January 29th, and after travelling for an hour or two over the plain, crossed the encircling range of mountains by the Pichi Kuan or Jade Fowl pass, west of the city. The road then took us over undulating country, partially cultivaled, to An-ning Chou, where I spent the night, and on the next day through heath-like country of a hilly nature to Lao-ya-kuan.
I suppose the road, which, be it remembered, is the main line of communication across the province from the capital to the frontier of the empire, is the most execrable example of a highway which it is possible for the mind of man, with its necessary limitations, to conceive. As a hindrance to traffic it can indeed lay claim to considerable distinction, but this, outside China, would scarcely be voted a desirable recommendation for a road, and as a highway qua highway, it can only be described as a dismal and sorrowful failure. I invariably left it when possible, and took a line across the adjoining hills and fields,—a procedure which I noticed was frequently adopted by the caravans of the country themselves. The muleteer is, indeed, as an individual, by no means devoid of humour. "Good for ten years, and bad for ten thousand," he says, as he stoically contemplates the highway which a thoughtful and paternal Government provides for him. That he happens to live during the period of ten thousand years, and not during the happier epoch of ten years, is neither his own fault nor the fault of his Government, but the accident of fate, and a thing, therefore, to be borne,—cheerfully it may be, but in any case to be borne. That is destiny, and no good Easterner is so foolish as to dream of questioning the decrees of destiny.
A main road in Yün-nan.
The strip of land, of crude and wholly unconsidered gradients, which was apportioned for the purposes of communication in this particular district, had the appearance of having been powdered with shapeless boulders from some gigantic sugar-sifter. Large portions of it were under water, and the whole of it under slippery mud—this, too, at the driest season of the year. A glance at the accompanying photograph will perhaps assist the reader to an understanding of the real significance of the expression "Chinese road." I had heard "young China" declaring from the housetops its ability and its determination to cover the country with a network of railways, and now I was travelling over young China's conception of a main road, and I was amused—but not surprised. I had a short time before come into contact with a college of the modern type, where the mathematical course began with algebra, regardless of the fact that, as far as the pupils were concerned, simple arithmetic was a thing unknown. Why should a Chinese who aspired to solve abstruse mathematical problems concern himself with such mathematical puerilities as the silly rule which says that 2 + 2 are to make 4? Why, likewise, should a Yün-nan student who aspires to construct mountain railways of a highly complicated kind bother his head about such elements of road-making as levels, gradients, and curves? Why indeed—so long as it is only Celestials who are constrained to travel over them, and the goods of Sinim that they are fated to convey?
Eighty li of the switchback order took us to Lu-fêng Hsien on the evening of the 31st. The mountain-sides all round showed signs of former forest. Whole areas of pine-trees, however, have been ruthlessly cut down, and nothing but the stumps remain. These sprout and assume the appearance of small bushes, adding a somewhat curious feature to the landscape. That some improvement has taken place in the condition of the country since the close of the devastating Mohammedan rebellion in 1873 is attested by the presence of well-cultivated basins, which are to be seen from the road among the hills. My only note as to the condition of the road itself between Lao-ya Kuan and Lu-fêng Hsien is—"track abominable." Margary, in his diary of his famous journey from Shanghai to Burma, describes it as outdoing everything he had so far encountered in utter badness. "It is far from being an easy task," he wrote, "to describe the incredible obstacles which are suffered to remain unheeded on this track." Perhaps there was truth in his surmise that the retreating Mohammedans "purposely destroyed the pavement in order to throw difficulties in the way of the Imperial troops." This, however, was thirty-five years ago, and the obstacles are still there.
She-tz'ŭ, a village situated in a well-cultivated plain surrounded by hills, was our halting-place for the night of February 1st. We had travelled as usual across mountain-ranges all day, the only habitations visible consisting of small collections of mud houses that could hardly be dignified by the name of village. We halted at Kuang-t'ung Hsien on the 2nd, and at Ch'u-hsiung Fu on the 3rd. The latter is a small town with a small garrison and a few moderate shops, in which I was unable to find anything of foreign manufacture. The military officer, a man of inferior rank, called to pay his respects, and provided me with a fresh escort of four soldiers, those who had accompanied me from the capital returning to their homes the happy possessors of 1200 cash (about 3s.) apiece.
For the next two days we passed through a less impossible country. Well-cultivated valleys, with fields of rape, wheat, and poppy, were intersected by pine-clad ridges of no very great height, our stages being the villages of Lü-ho and Sha-chiao on the nights of the 4th and 5th respectively. During the 6th and 7th we were again marching over interminable mountains, spending the night of the 6th at the poverty-stricken village of Pu P'eng, and dropping on the afternoon of the 7th to a large level plain over 7000 feet above sea-level, well cultivated and dotted with villages, at one of which, Yün-nan-yi, we spent the night.
Immediately after leaving Yün-nan-yi on the 8th, we passed through some low hills and emerged on another large plain in which stands the town of Yün-nan Hsien. Leaving the town a mile or two to the north, we climbed a mountain-range, where our path lay among masses of wild rose in bloom, and descended on the far side to the northern end of the Mitu plain, halting at the village of Hūnghai. To the south the plain stretched away to the horizon, and it is up this tract of level land that the Yün-nan Company's Commission decided on bringing their line from the Kung-long Ferry, carrying it over the range a little south of where we crossed it, to Yün-nan Hsien, and so on to the capital, following the direction of the road along which we had travelled, but turning instead of crossing the ranges, which cut the existing route at right angles. A branch, it was proposed, should follow the caravan route from Hūnghai to Tali Fu, and possibly on past that city to Shang-kuan, the northern pass out of the valley in which Tali Fu is situated. Between Tali Fu and Yün-nan Fu the line would pass along what may be described as the backbone of Yün-nan, a strip of elevated country draining to the Yang-tsze on the north and to the Red river basin on the south.
Of the three lines talked of, but not yet begun—i.e., the Bhamo-Tali Fu line, the Tali Fu-Yün-nan Fu line, and the Yün-nanSsuch'uan railway—the Tali Fu-Yün-nan Fu line would undoubtedly prove the easiest to construct, and would, under existing conditions, tap an area rather less populous and productive, perhaps, than the Bhamo-Tali Fu line, but undoubtedly more populous and productive than the Yün-nan-Ssŭch'uan line. The scientific and systematic development of the mineral wealth of the country might very considerably modify existing conditions and enhance the value of the Yün-nan-Ssŭch'uan line, copper, lead, zinc, iron, and coal existing in considerable quantities in the vicinity of Tung-ch'uan. Mining enterprise in this part of China, however, is pushed forward with an extreme caution and deliberation; and it was only while I myself was in Yün-nan Fu in January 1907, that an Englishman and a Frenchman were said to be on their way with a view to making some personal investigation into the possibilities of a concession to work minerals in seven named districts granted to an Anglo-French combination, designated the Yün-nan Syndicate, in June 1902. Even in the matter of minerals it is neither the Bhamo-Tali Fu, nor the Tali Fu-Yün-nan Fu, nor the Yün-nan-Ssŭch'uan lines that possess the brightest prospects, but the French Red river line from the Yün-nanese capital to the sea, since it is in the neighbourhood of this line that lie the rich mines of Kuo-chiu-ch'ang, the greatest tin-producing district in China.
It may be added that the visit of the engineers in question, on behalf of the Yünnan Syndicate, has already produced a sequel from which it can only be deduced that, as a result of the "China for the Chinese" propaganda, the scientific development of the mineral resources of Yün-nan are to be still further postponed. The episode is described by a correspondent of 'The Times' in an article upon "Foreign Capital in China" in that paper's "Financial and Commercial Supplement" of July 24th, 1908. I append the following extract:—
"In 1906 it was decided to make a beginning of independent working, and the company's engineer was therefore directed to inspect certain properties in the Lin-an Fu district; the necessary intimation was conveyed to the local officials, and a military escort was provided by the Sub-Prefect of Mêng-tzŭ. In the course of his work the engineer had occasion to inspect the private property of a native named Ming Li-sung, but no sooner had the inspection taken place, and before the return of the engineer to Mêng-tzŭ, than Ming Li-sung (aged 70) and his son were arrested and imprisoned on the charge of having attempted to sell their land to foreigners. A proclamation was issued in reference to the case on December 31, 1907, by Wei, Taotai of Mêng-tzŭ. This document is interesting in that it commences by referring to the Yün-nan Company's agreement as an entirely satisfactory one; subsequently, however, the writer refers to the recently promulgated Mining Regulations, gravely asserting that thereunder a permit from the local yamen is necessary for all prospecting operations. Finally, he accuses Ming Li-sung (before trial) of having tried to sell his land secretly, and insists on the Government's rights of ownership in the subsoil and the necessity for official sanction for all mining work.
"Ming Li-sung was subsequently tried, and the magistrate's decision given that he had only been associated with the foreigner in prospecting operations and had not attempted to sell his land. Nevertheless, his property was taken from him, and ordered to be included henceforward in the joint-stock lands of the Ming clan, on the condition that the latter should 'never arrange to sell or lease it to foreigners.' In the conclusion of the judgment it is recorded that 'Ming Li-sung and his son acted unlawfully in introducing a foreigner to investigate and measure this mining property.' Intimations of this kind from the local yamen are not lost upon the people, and the result in this case is equivalent to complete repudiation of the rights conferred upon the Yün-nan Syndicate—repudiation deliberate and unjustified by any real or imaginary grievance. And, as showing that the central and provincial Governments are at one in this suicidal policy, it should be added that the French Legation's formal protest to the Waiwupu against the action of Wei Taotai was met by his removal upon substantial promotion.
"An idea of the favourable nature of the agreement which is thus nullified may be inferred from the fact that, in addition to binding itself to supply a million pounds of copper annually to the central Government at a fixed low rate, and to meet the requirements of the provinces at local market rates, the company undertook to pay 35 per cent of its net profits on paying properties in royalties (making good all losses on other mines from its own funds), and to pay a pit-mouth tax of 5 per cent on all produce."
The Mining Regulations referred to by Taotai Wei were those issued by the Chinese Government in 1907, and were of such a character as to practically prohibit the employment of modern methods and of foreign capital in the development of the mineral wealth of China. They were denounced by the Legations as a breach of treaty engagements; but the case of the Yün-nan Syndicate is only one of many that might be cited as examples of the avidity with which provincial officials have grasped hold of any cover, behind which they might shelter their arbitrary and exclusive procedure where foreigners are concerned.
During the night the usual hubbub of a Chinese inn was accentuated by the late arrival of a caravan of twenty mules, bound from Tali Fu with a consignment of opium for the capital.
North-west of Hūnghai the road ascends a range of mountains, and passing through a gap at no very great altitude, drops by a gradual descent to another plain, in which stands the town of Ch'ao-chou. A heavy crop of beans stood in the valley, and poppy was also growing in large quantities. From here a walk of thirty li over level ground brought us on the morning of February 10th to Hsia-kuan, a distributing centre of considerable importance occupying a fine strategic position at the mouth of the rich valley of Tali Fu. Few retail shops are to be seen, but large warehouses and offices tell of its commercial importance. The Hsia-kuan river, which drains the vast lake running south and north along the Tali valley, flows languidly through the town prior to entering a gorge a mile or so to the west, down which it rushes with all the force and fury of a mountain torrent. Crossing it by a fine stone bridge, we ascended the long, steep, stone-paved street which leads through the town to the slopes which lie between a wall of snow-capped mountains rising in peaks to 13,000 feet on the west, and the deep blue waters of the lake on the east, and eight miles farther on passed through the imposing southern gateway of Tali Fu, the western capital.