NAVIGATING THE YANGTZE GORGES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 22

NAVIGATING THE YANGTZE GORGES

Hazardous Journey On China River

On a hill above the Hsintan Rapids of the Upper Yangtze one finds a small and modest monument. It is a monument to the late Captain Cornell Plant, whose house stood on the very spot, and who is known as the pioneer of steam navigation of the Upper Yangtze. About a thousand miles from the sea, between the river port of Ichang and the old picturesque city of Chungking, the Yangtze-kiang passes for more than 400 mile's through a country which might be compared for its grandeur with the Swiss Alps, and for its wildness with some of the American canyons. For more than 400 miles this river, one of the world’s greatest waterways, carved its bed through this wild country, forming gorges througli mountains, and rapids over cliffs. And this part of the river is comparable only to itself: it is one of the wonders of the world.

But wild as the river in these parts may be, it is the main, if not the only way of transportation between Chungking, the rich port of the rich province of Szechwan, and the different less important ports and Ichang, where the river loses its wildness and becomes a steady stream down to Hankow and Shanghai. Navigation on the Upper Yangtze had for years been carried on by Chinese boatmen who on their junks through gorges and over sw'irling rapids daily risked their lives in their calling. Captain Plant estimated that probably not 20 per cent, of the junks from Ichang reached Chungking unscathed and never without experiencing some hairbreadth escape. The glorious “Dragon Rapids” are said to be the most dangerous part of the ■river, and Chinese say that the loss of life here during the low water level period averages three per day, and that the total loss of life among the boatmen between Ichang and Chungking averages 1000 a year. We might again mention Captain Plant, who knew the river better than any other foreigner ever did, and who estimates that this number is much below the real truth. Downward bound junks are manoeuvred by twenty to thirty men at the oars, a pilot at the helm, and a captain on the ‘‘bridge.” Upward bound junks for the greater part of the way, and especially over the rapids, are

towed by trackers, strong fellows whose only clothing in most cases consists of a blue or red piece of cloth round the head, and who, because they sometimes have to wade UP “ e belly through miles and miles of mud, are called both by foreigneis • n Chinese “Yangtze pigs.” Such junks, at least the biggest o them, cost from 1000 to 1500 ounces o silver, reach over 150 ft. in iengtb, carry 60 tons of cargo upstream and JO tons down. The passage from Ichang to Chungking over these 400 dangerous miles takes, according to the season, twenty-five to sixty days, the crew tots up to over 100 men all told, and the running expenses are on an average between 700 and SOO Chinese dollars per trip. , ,i The dangers and difficulties ot the navigation of this part of the Yangtze might be figured out from the fact that in Chungking imported goods such as kerosene, beer, cigarettes, etc., cost twice as much as at Ichang, only 400 miles down river. Having regard to the difficulties of navigation always encountered by small craft, great optimism was necessary to realise steam navigation between Ichang and Chungking. But in 1898 Archibald Little built the steam launch Leechuan, which after an adventurous voyage of three weeks from Ichang, was the first steamer to reach Chungking, on March 8, 1898. But at first these were only spasmodic trips, and the idea of a regular steamship service on the Upper Yangtze was deferred for the time being owing to the Boxer trouble, and later to the Revolution. It was Captain Plant who, as skipper of the Pioneer, had become well acquainted with this glorious river, who in 1913 helped to form the. Szechwan Steam Navigation Company, which started a regular steamer service with the captain as their technical expert.

Nowadays most of the China shipping companies have their own steamers running in regular service between Ichang and Chungking. The trip, according to season and boat, takes four to five days up river, and two to three days down.

The risks of navigation on this part of the river change entirely with the different seasons.,