CHINA’S RAILWAYS.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17222, 4 October 1927, Page 11

CHINA’S RAILWAYS.

LACK OF RAILROADS. HOLDS UP NEWS FOR MONTHS. Why it takes so lonsbecome out of the heart , n Kc cently two months elapsed between time the seismograph , „ tral United States, with more the inhabitants of the two combined, has less railway mleaoC than Kansas. The Fmtcd S ales Ivs one mile of railway for even square miles of territory, am ono 460 of its population; Chinaa_ - mile for every 550 f < territory and for every oG.OOO more than one in five Chinese have even seen a [' a !^° a d e^ < ! . hardly more than one in fift> ms e\ a rSdcn on a train. T»e W*™* * Szcchucn, twice the size at - - of Illinois, and containing as many people as the United States east of t Mississippi River .has no ra lv/a at a 1 nor have Mongolia, lhiliet and c provinces of Kansu, Shansi, KweicAovv. and Kwanssi Tho total cquipmcn of an Chinese railroads amounts to less than half that of one of the major lme. in this country, and their equipment generally so deteriorated as not to compare with America’s. Only recently have the Chinese themselves taken any active interest in railway buildng. Foregners haw been responsible for what railvw. _ vclopment there is, and they have often worked under the most serious handicaps. Less than one-seventh of the present mileage was built with Chines, capital. It took twelve yearn for tlm first British railroad builders there to overcome Chinese opposition sufficiently to go ahead with a narrow-gauge line, twelve miles in length, between Shanghai and Woosung, at the mould of the Yanglse River. It was opened in December, 1876, but did not survive a year. The Government blocked traffic, tore up the line, and dispatched rails, engines and cars to Formosa, where they were left to rot on the beach. Burial Grounds in the Way.

A serious handicap to railway construction in China is the omnipresent burial ground. Between Shanghai and Nanking, for instance, ouc of the most densely populated areas of its size m the world, the right-of-way desired for the railway was almost one continuous cemetery, with graves scattered promiscuously over the cultivated fields. 'Po remove any of these graves requited extensive negotiations with the descendants of the deceased, snee only they could perform the necessary rites, and” if their consent could not be obtained the line had to be built in and out among the tombs. In some places gaps were left in the cmbankme."V until tiie graves could be transferred to other places. China’s railway history proper is barely a quarter of a century old, dating from the opening in 1903 of the Russia-built Chinese Eastern Railway, tiie Manchurian link of the TransSiberian Railway, and the extension of tin: imperial Railway in North China to connect with it at Mukden. It would now be possible to travel from Paris to‘Hongkong by rail but for the fact that the stretch between Ghuchow and Shiuchow has never been completed. The only direct railway route between North China and the East Yangtse Valley is the Tientsin-Pukow line, following the general route of the Imperial canal. Built by Germans and British, it is said to be the best constructed railroad in the country, having cost an average of 65,000 dollars a mile. Cn the German portion are found the most pretentious railway stations in China. This route from North China is continued by the Shanghai-Nanking Railway to the sea, built under a British loan.

The Chinese themselves have extended this line southward along the coast through Hangchow to Ningpo.

The Chinese also built the PekingSuiyuan Railway, piercing the Great Wall and reaching westward to the Mongolian frontier. It was financed by Chinese capital, constructed by Chinese engineers, and has always been under strictly Chinese management.

With the exception of its 7700 miles of railway, a country more than 4,000,000 square miles in area depends for transportation and communication mainly on methods that have been in use for thousands of years. Waterways are the principal highways, and boats are supplemented by the backs of coolies, camels and donkeys, muledrawn carts, and wheelbarrows.