CHINA’S LIFE-LINE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4814, 24 July 1939, Page 7

CHINA’S LIFE-LINE

ROAD FROM BURMA.

OVER PRECIPITOUS MOUNTAIN.

There have been occasional reports recently about the new highway from Burma into the Chinese province of Yunnan, described as China’s military life-line, her sole artery of supplies now that the Japanese have blockaded her ports. “Crude as it is now,” wrote the New York Times Rangoon correspondent in April last, “this Burma-China highway is a marvellous example of Chinese indefatigability. Skirting the slopes of high mountains and crossing mighty rivers, it winds its precarious way 790 miles from Lashio to. Kunming, China’s industrial capital and every foot of it has been built by manual labour. On the Chinese side even the rollers used to level it are made of stone, cut out of the mountainside by hand. Long sections are built of hand-cut stone blocks, also placed by hand. Within Chinese territory 200 engineers and more than 160,000 coolies have been used for the work.

“Across the Salween River the road dips in a long zig-zag from a height of 7200 feet 'to 2500 feet. On the other side of a steel bridge it rises again to a height of 7500 feet. The route is over a series of plateaus of varying elevations with deep valleys between them On overcast days the road in places runs above the clouds. Its normal width is about 24 feet, but eventually it will be a 30-foot highway throughout.” A New Railway Also. A railroad between Kunming and Burma has been started, but it will be two and a half years before it is completed, although more than 75,000 Chinese men and women are already at work on it. The present route from Rangoon by river, railroad and highway is now China’s only lifeline. Supplies unloaded here by incoming vessels take two paths northward into Chinese territory. Munitions and less bulky supplies go by river steamer up the Irrawaddy river to Bhamo, whence the older border road runs south-east to the new highway, which it reaches about 12 miles inside the Burma frontier. This border road, although recently improved, is good only in dry weather. Thus from Bhamo and Lashio two steady streams of traffic converge upon the new highway and roll north-eastward. At best, however, the trucks can make only 12 miles an hour over the rough surface.