FRANCE TO CHINA

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4871, 16 July 1936, Page 2

FRANCE TO CHINA

RAILWAY COMPLETED. JOURNEY OF EIGHTEEN DAYS. The announcement that the last rail of the Hankow-Canton or HuKwang line has been laid converts a protracted and fitful dream into a reality of the near future and opens up a new vista of travel (states a correspondent of The Times). All being well, one will be able by the end of this year to go from Calais to Honykong by journey of six different stages and approximately 18 days. Five of the stages are already in constant use. The first lies between Calais and the Russian frontier at Negoreloye, via Berlin, three days; the second and longest stretches, via Moscow, across Siberia to Manchuli,

on the Manchukuo border, eight days; the third carries on, via Harbin and Mukden, to the Chinese frontier at Shanhaikwan, one day; the fourth brings one in another day to Peking; the fifth is along the Peking-Hankow line, 36 hours. The sixth and new stage, occupying, say, two days, will bring one from Wuchang, opposite Hankow, to Changsha (between which points, a line, has been in operation for many years), and from there to Canton, whence the existing Canton-Kowloon railway, which may or may not be linked with the Hankow-Canton line, will carry one to the mainland side of Hongkong's wonderful harbour, a fitting end to a journey of varied scenery.

Between the Yangtze and Chenhsien the scenery is interesting rather than picturesque. South of that town, however, it alters suddenly, exchanging hillocks or red sandstone, which have a somewhat monotonous effect, for finely-formed mountains. Farther south still these mountains become impressive. The cost of the whole line between Chuchow, where it continues the Changsha section, to Shiuchow, where it meets the Kwangtung section—a distance of 456 kilometres (83 rails a kilometre) —is financed by a loan of £1,500,000 secured on the British portion of the Boxer indemnity, which was remitted by Act of Parliament some years ago. The construction of the line required a coolie force of 100,000, nearly half of whom came from north of the Yangtze.