FIRST UP THE YANGTZE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6668, 23 July 1928, Page 3

FIRST UP THE YANGTZE

After a very cold night, I woko to find that wc were steaming. through thick yellow water in a river that might have' been a sea. : Por a long time there was litjkle to be seen ~ox«; cept a few fishing-boats. Then wo were, heading in towards three'hills. One; of the hills was topped by a pagoda from a willow-pattern plate', in bluq ? and dark blue, with upturned corners to ite’ successive roofs. Below 'tho pagoda' the hill fell steeply, and houses witlv similar roofs clustered on its side' almost one above another down to the plain, a flat country rather like that Norfolk, with bare, pale willows, win-ter-withered grass, smair drab huts and barns beside which I could see robed Chinese, r A Chinese lighter,; pro-, pelled by long, pivoted sweeps, came out to meet us to take passengers, and Iviggagc ashore. In, her stern a Chim esc stood with a big bamboo round which was twisted a long snake of \scarv let fire-crackers which were ’ going ofl with a rapid fatoo of loud bangs. Thfr is the Chinese way of welcoming the, first ship up the river in the Chin esq. Now Year, the celebration of which was in full progress regardless of -ths civil war. The Suiwo slowed down,' a rope was flung and made fast, thp barge was jerked’into our gait, nearly upsetting the man .who was preoccupied with the ceremonial letting off of crackers, a few Chinese, inen in robes, women in trousers, followed by thoii baggage werc-tossed into the lighter, the rope was cast loose, and the fciuiwo proceeded on her way. Wc came to Nanking in the early morning, and were already moving up the river again before I came on deck. The river was now narrower, but still; very wide, with steep, clayey banks. Here and there were the first signs of tho spring crops, ■ in patches of pale, green, beside little fragile huts with matting roofs. In the background,' away from the river, were steepish little hills. The narrowing of the river, made the amount of small sailing traffic more, obvious, small sampans under a singly sail, or moved by a yuloh, a bent scull on a pivot, .worked with a motion like that used in propelling a dinghy with an oar over the stern, two-masted and three-masted junks, with sails of long strips plaited alternately in and out of horizontal ■ bamboo battens, and a few bigger vessels, lorehas, as big. as small Baltic coasting schooners.