CHINESE ENGINEERING.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12754, 29 March 1910, Page 4

CHINESE ENGINEERING.

The immense potentialities of China ' from the commercial point of view has, j says ''Eiiffi;c-i ' : -X' been a theme of speculation io. a iong time, and although the promises from time to^time of a great industrial awakening have not been fulfilled to any marked extent, there seem convincing indications that advance will be more rapid in the future than in the past. The prejudice of the East against those influences which mark the progress of the* West i& dying out. The example of the Japanese is stimulating the Chinese. The late Empress-Dowager in her latter 'days, inculcated in her successors counsels of reform and progress. Perhaps the most significant suggestion of the change ib to bo^found in the driving of a tunnel through the hard solid rock under the Great Wall. This was for the Pekhi-Kalgan Hailway, opened three mouths ago. Only those who have any acquaintance with Chinese character, ahd with the immenso importance attached to the cherished isolation against Western ingress, against even influence, which tho Chinese AVall was supposed to give, can form an idea of the change of attitude of .the Oriental mind regarding modern' innovations proved by this tunnelling work. This railway, too, indicates the development 'in knowledge of modern engineering of the Chinese, because the work of construction was carried out entirely by Chinese -engineers aud workmen, and it is to be remembered that one of the bridges had seven spans of 100 ft., that one of the tunnels was 3,580 ft. long, aud, with four others and cuttings 90 feet deep, lia-d to be made through the famous Nankau Pass, and that concrete ai'ch bridges with 40ft. span, somo at an angle of obliquity of 45deg. } had to be made. Evidences, however, indicate that there is just a tendency on. the part of. the Chinese to assume a knowledge of engineering conditions beyond its experience, and trouble may arise unless the authorities .seek the. ripe experience of consulting engineers in tlio coming great development., in respect not" only of railway construction, bridge building, and other engineering works, but also of mining operations, all of wliich promise to influence considerably the industrial situation in China.